MELANIE MELANSON - 14 yo (1989) - Woburn MA

The family of a girl who went missing 20 years ago will hold a
candlelight vigil on Sunday to commemorate what would have been her
35th birthday.

On October 27, 1989, 14-year-old Melanie Melanson – a freshman at
Woburn High School, disappeared just five days before her 15th birthday
after a party in the woods with a group of friends.

Tomorrow marks 20 years since she was last reported seen.

For months after her disappearance, family members, friends, and local
law enforcement conducted extensive searches to find Melanie. She was
never found.

A reward of $5,000 has been offered for new information that leads to the discovery of her body.

The vigil will be held at 5 p.m. at the Woburn High School parking lot.

There is a strange coincidence surrounding an arrest in a Wakefield robbery. Police
say a man they took into custody is also one of the last people to see a
Woburn teen alive before she disappeared more than 20 years ago. 37-year
old, Eugene Bertini, was arrested Monday night for his alleged
involvement in a violent robbery at a Wakefield gas station. Bertini
was reportedly with 14-year-old, Melanie Melanson, back in 1989 on the
night she disappeared from a drinking party in the woods. Melanson's family attended Bertini's court appearance in Malden, hoping for answers.
Bertini denies any involvement in Melanie’s disappearance. He’s being held without bail this morning pending a dangerousness hearing next week.
Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/crime_files/crime_watch/wakefield-robbery-suspect-connected-to-missing-teen-case-20110427#ixzz1KjoHfCOJ

Private Investigator Says He Has New Leads in Case of Girl Missing Since 1989

Published November 27, 2011
WOBURN, Mass. – A private detective believes he could have some new leads in the disappearance of a 14-year-old Massachusetts girl.

Melanie Melanson was last seen at a high
school party in the woods on the outskirts of Woburn, Massachusetts in
October 1989, and her family has lived without answers for 22 years.

Private detective Michael Garrigan has
worked on the case since the very beginning, and now is optimistic new
leads could finally solve this mystery.

“I developed some leads over the past year,
we can’t discuss those at this time, but very credible leads from
several sources,” Garrigan told FOX 25.

On Saturday, Garrigan was joined by a team
of volunteers and the Connecticut Canine Search and Rescue Group as he
headed back to the place where Melanie was last seen. He believes the
woods hold the secret to the teenager’s mystery.

Trained cadaver dogs sniffed out the area in
hopes of confirming what Garrigan says he has already discovered and
tested before: a trace of human decomposition in the woods.

This is not the first time that
investigators have returned to the woods. Detectives launched a
revitalized search in 2009, just before what would have been Melanie’s 35th birthday.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/27/private-investigator-says-has-new-leads-in-case-girl-missing-since-18/#ixzz1ewdOuTll

The family of a Woburn teen who went missing during a high school
party in 1989 hoped a renewed search for her body would bring new
results. On Thursday, Massachusetts State Police armed with
shovels and a backhoe returned to the wooded area behind McDonald’s near
Montvale Avenue where Melanie Melanson was last seen.
Officers
were acting on information brought forth by a private investigator’s
search over the weekend. During that search, cadaver dogs made a hit
that suggested the presence of a body.
After digging for about an hour on Thursday, officers did not find anything that would help the case.
The high school freshman’s family began the week hoping this would be the end of their search.
“We
all want her back, we want to give her a proper burial,” says Melanie’s
aunt, Karen Montgomery, “Nobody deserves to be in the soil or wherever
she is.”
Anyone who has information about Melanie Melanson’s disappearance is asked to contact the Middlesex District Attorney’s office.
A $5,000 reward is being offered in this case.

Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/state-police-search-for-melanie-melanson-comes-up-empty-20111201#ixzz1fLYoyEyr

New tip prompts investigators to search state park for remains of girl missing since 1989

By Cristina Corbin, FoxNews.com
Published July 26, 2012

An anonymous tip is prompting investigators to search a Massachusetts state park for a teenage girl who mysteriously disappeared 23 years ago when she entered nearby woods with a group of friends and never came out.

Melanie Melanson was five days shy of her 15th birthday when she vanished in October 1989, after attending a party with friends in a wooded area near the Woburn-Stoneham town line. Authorities believe the girl was killed, but her body has never been found and no suspects have ever been named in the case.

"We don't believe she ran away. We believe that she's deceased." - Jessica Pastore, spokeswoman for district attorney

But an anonymous tip recently received from a man in New Hampshire might bring investigators closer to finding the teen and apprehending the person or persons involved in her disappearance, a source close to the case told FoxNews.com.

The anonymous caller directed authorities to search nearby Middlesex Fells Reservation in Stoneham, where he said one of the teens last seen partying with Melanson was spotted later that night, according to the source. The caller identified himself as a former friend of one of those teens.

"Our contact tells us there's a possibility she was put into this park," the source said.

Michael Garrigan, a private investigator who has worked on the case since 1991, confirmed that a group of 9-13 dog teams will search a portion of the state park on Saturday. The Middlesex County district attorney's office told FoxNews.com that an officer with the Woburn Police Department will also be present during the search.

Melanie, then a freshman at Woburn High School, was the youngest attendee at the party on Oct. 27, 1989, in a wooded hangout popular to area teenagers. In the hours immediately following her disappearance, authorities suspected the girl may have run away, but later concluded that she was likely killed.

"We don't believe she ran away. We believe that she's deceased," said Jessica Pastore, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County district attorney's office.

"We're hopeful that we can find Melanie and give her the proper burial that she deserves," said Pastore, adding, "We know who was with Melanie the night she disappeared."

The girl's family has said she was last seen with two teenage boys in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 1989, according to local media reports.

Garrigan said he believes that if Melanson's remains are in Middlesex Fells Reservation, "my gut feeling is that she was not alive" when she was taken out of the woods.

The latest search for the girl comes after dogs detected a positive hit for human decomposition last year in an area close to where she was last seen.

"Everyone came out of that woods but her," said Garrigan, "And I’m confident something is in that ground or was in that ground."

"I’m not going to stop looking until I find this girl," he said. "I don’t think any family should go this long without closure."

A $5,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to Melanie Melanson's remains. Anyone with information on her disappearance is urged to contact the Woburn Police Department at 781-933-1212 x853 or State Police assigned to the Middlesex district attorney's office at 781-897-6650.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/26/new-tip-prompts-investigators-to-search-state-park-for-remains-girl-missing/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn#ixzz21kq3rlDZ

New Search in 1989 Massachusetts Cold Case


By CHRISTINA NG (@ChristinaNg27)
July 28, 2012

Cadaver dogs and searchers are combing an area of a Massachusetts state park today in hopes of solving the 1989 cold case disappearance of a local teenager.

Melanie Melanson was 14 years old when she went a party in the woods on the Woburn-Stoneham town line in Massachusetts. She entered the woods with friends and was never seen again.

Her body was never found and no one has ever been arrested in her case, even though authorities have said they believe she is dead.

"She was left in the woods by most of the partygoers with two to three individuals, one or all of them had something to do with this," private investigator Michael Garrigan told ABCNews.com. "We just want to figure out what happened. We've heard a lot of stories over the years, a lot of reasons why and possibilities, but until we find her, we won't have the truth."

A recent credible anonymous tip gave the investigation new hope.

Garrigan said that when he receives a tip, he tries to validate it in some other manner before putting a lot of hope or resources into it.

"In this case, we were able to confirm it in a couple different avenues so that made it necessary to do a search and see if there was anything there," Garrigan said.

Eleven teams with cadaver dogs will be using a systematic grid search to comb a section of the Middlesex Fells Reservation in Stoneham, Mass. The woods used to be connected to the Woburn woods where Melanson was last seen.

"There was a way to get there relatively easy, and this was also the stomping ground for the people we believe were involved in [Melanson's disappearance]," Garrigan said.

Melanson's aunt, Karen Montgomery, 56, told ABCNews.com the family believes Melanie's body might have been moved from one set of woods to the other. She is "very hopeful" that there will be a breakthrough in the case soon.

"It's like a 23-year funeral. On holidays and her birthday, there's times you wish she was here and it's hard," Montgomery said. "It's tough enough when you lose a parent when they're older, and that's the circle of life, but not a 15-year-old girl."

Melanson disappeared on Oct. 27, 1989, and her 15th birthday would have been that Nov. 1.

"She had no reason to run away or go anywhere," Montgomery said. "She was looking forward to her birthday and getting her braces off. Her father was going to buy her leather boots."

Melanson's grandparents and parents have died, but her aunts and uncles have kept up the search.

"We owe it to her parents and grandparents and owe it to Melanie not to give up and to keep looking ... until we can hopefully find her and give her a respectful burial and a place where we can put flowers on her grave," she said. "That's all we want. That's what everybody deserves."

Garrigan has been working for Melanson's family since 1991 and refuses to stop searching for her until he has found her.

"I have four children and if this was a daughter of mine, child of mine, I couldn't stop," he said. "And [even though] the child isn't mine, I have the same philosophy. No child should disappear at age 14 and 23 years later have no information about where she went. It's just wrong, and no family should go through that."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/search-1989-massachusetts-cold-case-melanie-melanson/story?id=16873903#.UBPt-qN0grh

Crews searching Woburn, Mass. woods for missing girl

Aug 17, 2012 5:51am



(NECN: Eileen Curran, Woburn, Mass.) - Crews are fanning out this Friday morning in a wooded area of Woburn, Mass. They are looking for clues in a cold missing persons case.

Melanie Melanson disappeared in 1989 at the age of 14.

For a third time in the past year, searchers will return to the woods looking for the remains of Melanie Melanson.

The Woburn, Mass. girl was last seen in the woods with some friends back in 1989.

She was days shy of her 15th birthday.

Over the years, two grand juries have heard evidence in the case, but no charges were ever filed.

There have been numerous searches, but Melanie remains missing.

In November of last year, a private investigator brought in volunteers and search dogs to comb the Woburn woods.

In July of this year, they searched the Middlesex Fells Reservation in Stoneham.

Now, they return to Woburn, after soil samples here tested positive for human decomposition.

Family members have resigned themselves to the fact Melanie is gone and hope someone comes forward with answers.

http://www.necn.com/08/17/12/Crews-searching-Woburn-Mass-woods-for-mi/landing_newengland.html?blockID=758473&feedID=4206

Crews resume search for Melanson remains WOBURN, Mass.

VIDEO REPORT AT LINK

(WHDH) -- Crews resumed their search Saturday, looking for clues in the cold case of a Woburn teenager who vanished in 1989.

Friday, crews renewed their decades long search for Melanie Melanson.

They dug through a wooded area with dogs, looking for clues in her disappearance.

Investigators believe her remains are there based on responses from those cadaver dogs.

Melanson was 14-years-old when she vanished after attending a party in the woods in 1989.

No one has ever been charged in the case.

Read more: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/metro-west/12008302535051/crews-resume-search-for-melanson-remains/#ixzz245ubKb1k