MA, Nereida Melendez -17, Auburn 5 June 1989

[Seattle1]

‘We’re Going To Be Her Voice’: Family Still Searching For Teen’s Killer After 30 Years

AUBURN (CBS) – “She called the house, she said come on over and bake some brownies and cookies because I want to have a graduation party,” Margie and Peter Vazquez said inside their Auburn home.

That was the last time Nereida Melendez’s older brother, Peter, spoke with his litter sister. It was 30 years ago, the night before her high school graduation.

“You can see all the kids coming up the hill back home in their gowns and we were looking for our sister, she didn’t show up,” said Peter.

But Nettie’s life was tragically cut short when she was killed on the day of her graduation – June 5th, 1989. She was last seen that morning, dropping off a van at her job.

“One report said someone was supposed to pick her up. The other report said she walked to her rehearsal but she never got to the graduation rehearsal,” Peter recalled.

Melendez’s pocketbook was found by a dog walker on Worcester’s Bell Hill, around the same time her family had reported her missing to police. By the next morning, her own brother found her body in a wooded area behind Bell Pond; under a pile of leaves.

In a statement to WBZ-TV, Worcester Police said “the case remains a high priority and new technologies are continuously being applied to the physical evidence in the case.”

On this anniversary, the family says they’re still holding out hope.

“What I would say to that person, one day we will have our justice. We have to, I believe in that. And you will be caught,” said Peter.

“We’re going to be her voice and make sure people are out there listening. This is not going to go unsolved,” Margie said.

ETA: Did not locate name in Cold Cases - please combine if duplicate thread. Thanks.

 

[Seattle1]

30 years after unsolved graduation day murder, family still seeks justice for Nettie Melendez

June 4, 2019

WORCESTER — Thirty years ago, on June 5, 1989, 17-year-old Nereida Melendez didn’t show up for her graduation from North High in Worcester.

Her body was found the next day under a pile of leaves near Bell Pond. She had been strangled with the strap of her pocketbook.

She was buried in her cap and gown. Her killer has never been found.

Thirty years later, her family still searches for answers — and for justice for the girl they called Nettie.

“Graduation season is a hard time,” says her eldest brother, Peter Vasquez, now 54, of Auburn, who was in the search party that discovered his little sister’s body in the woods off Elliott Street the day after she went missing. “You keep reliving that evening, and the next day.”

Mr. Vasquez’s wife, Margarita, 59, says they will continue to speak out about what happened to Nereida on the anniversary of the day they lost her. “I will not give up bringing her anniversary to light for as long as we both live,” she said. “As long as we’re breathing,” her husband added.

Said Mrs. Vasquez: “We just want to be her voice. She can’t be. We’re her voice.”

 

[Seattle1]

Mrs. Vasquez said she had been told by investigators that DNA was found, and that a person of interest was identified, but that charges had not been brought for lack of evidence.

Five years ago, in June 2014, on the 25th anniversary of Nettie’s death, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. told T&G columnist Dianne Williamson that investigators were confident that a break in the case might be forthcoming within months.

“This case has been worked as hard as any case since I’ve been here,” Mr. Early was quoted as saying. “We can’t disclose to the families or the media everything we’re doing. You run the risk of sabotaging the case. But we’re very hopeful. ... We feel very good about the direction we’re headed and where we’ll be in the next few months.”

Five years later, however, no new progress has been reported on the case.

Asked about the predicted breakthrough that did not come to fruition, a spokesman for Mr. Early, Timothy Connolly, said Tuesday: “The DA’s Office doesn’t get into the specifics of ongoing investigations. The DA and police were encouraged by the direction the investigation was taking at that time and we remain hopeful. There is still more work to do.”

Mr. Early, in a statement released by his office, said: “This has always been a very troubling case. This is an old case, but it is very active. We have been continuously working with the unresolved case squad at the Worcester PD. We are always hopeful that we will solve this murder and bring some closure to Nereida’s family.”

30 years after unsolved graduation day murder, family still seeks justice for Nettie Melendez

 

[Seattle1]

Killer still unknown years after teen dies

4/27/08

She was last seen alive about noon on graduation day. She had dropped off a van she borrowed from the cleaning company, Sani-Mate Supply Inc. Employees of a nearby market reported to police that she came in alone to buy a soft drink and left on foot, walking in the direction of Washington Square. The family believes she must have accepted a ride from somebody she knew.

When Nettie still hadn’t come home to get ready for her commencement ceremony later that day, her family grew increasingly distraught. Mr. Vasquez and his brothers and cousins began searching for her, peering into Dumpsters and handing out homemade fliers. They scoured the city for her until well after midnight. They barely slept that night, Mr. Vasquez said.

When the family found out from police the next morning that a jogger had found Miss Melendez’s purse along Elliot Street, near Bell Pond, they made a beeline for the area. They split up into two search teams. A soaking rain the previous night had left the wooded area blanketed in a thick layer of wet leaves.

After about a half-hour of poking around in the soggy leaves with fallen branches, Mr. Vasquez’s brother, Benito Melendez, called to him. He thought he had spotted part of a shirt.

Mr. Vasquez swept aside the leaves with trembling hands.

“I saw her face,” he recalled this past week. “She was staring at me.”

Nearly two decades later, the words caught in his throat as he relived that crushing moment. Police later said Nettie was strangled with her purse strap, probably sometime on the day of her graduation. She had not been sexually assaulted or robbed, police said at the time.

ETA: Wow, reading this 30 years later still makes it look like this family has been left on their own to find the killer of the daughter, sister, cousin...

 

[RookieInvestigator]

I feel sorry for the family...They are still waiting for answers all these years...

MURDERED IN WORCESTER 1980s

~ Patricia Gonyae (17) 10/22/1984
~ Patricia Evans (30) 08/08/1987
~ Nereida Melendez (17) 06/05/1989

**I'm unsure if there's a connection but the first 2 were raped and murdered (only listed victims for those specific crimes)...Unsure about Nereida...

 

[Seattle1]

I feel sorry for the family...They are still waiting for answers all these years...

MURDERED IN WORCESTER 1980s

~ Patricia Gonyae (17) 10/22/1984
~ Patricia Evans (30) 08/08/1987
~ Nereida Melendez (17) 06/05/1989

**I'm unsure if there's a connection but the first 2 were raped and murdered (only listed victims for those specific crimes)...Unsure about Nereida...

Investigators cite Nereida was strangled -- no evidence of SA.

Police later said Nettie was strangled with her purse strap, probably sometime on the day of her graduation. She had not been sexually assaulted or robbed, police said at the time.