"It tore the family apart with Melanie missing," her aunt Leusa Wellington said.
It was especially devastating to her cousins who were more like siblings. Especially Chaz Richardson.
'Chaz just loved Melanie," Sandra said of her two grandchildren. "They were close."
But just how closely the cousins' lives would resemble one another nine years later is haunting.
"I said it can't happen twice in one family. It just can't, it's impossible, but the impossible happened," Wellington said.
May 1, 2017 marked 514 days since her son, Chaz, vanished.
http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/WSAZ-Investigates-Missing-Melanie--420957633.html