Original subtitles

[projector whirring]

[poignant music]

♪ ♪

PERSON: From what I know, she's been missing

since about 5:00 this past Thursday.

She apparently had been at work that evening...

REPORTER: But instead of cramming,

many of these students are wondering

what has happened to their friend Melissa.

PERSON: It's upsetting. I want her back.

I want my friend back

and I want my sister back and...

PERSON: I believe that everything has a purpose

and that God used Missy to making everyone

realize how valuable everything is.

[rock music playing]

♪ ♪

[pins clattering]

[arcade games chiming]

[lively chatter]

[somber music]

♪ ♪

[pins clattering]

[cheering]

♪ ♪

CHARLENE: Fort Smith was basically a one-road downtown.

I mean, in Fort Smith, unless you were

into outside recreational activities,

there was pool, and there was bowling.

That's about the sport that was there for you

if you weren't on the river and on the lake.

Bowling was a big deal.

You know, that's where people had church leagues.

They had community leagues.

It was a big thing.

It's where people met, people hung out,

people gathered together.

So it was no surprise that, you know,

Mary Ann Witt was in a church league

with all of her friends.

And it's no surprise that that was a common thing

for the two of them to do, for Melissa to get off of work,

go home, change, and then go meet her mom and grab a burger

and spend some time with her mom and her friends.

This area represents what much of Bristow looks like--

as well as green country, black and brittle.

Here's the time to help other people...

I fell into reporting because I got

an internship back in Jacksonville

to work in a newsroom.

I realized how much I loved

telling other people's stories,

getting to know people, communicating with them.

And there's no greater responsibility

than when someone tells you their story,

and then you have that responsibility

of telling it back to the world.

I took that job, that role, and that responsibility

very, very seriously.

And the people in Fort Smith, Arkansas,

they would sit down and tell you--

they would tell you a story.

They would take the time and tell you a story.

And then it was my job to turn around and make sure

that I told that story effectively,

and if there was a call to action,

that I was able to get people to mobilize and to motivate.

I mean, I remember one of the big stories I did

was, local high school kids stole

a big, giant American flag from Hanging Judge Parker's museum.

This is the fourth time thieves have stolen the flag.

The last time, the community was so enraged,

whoever stole it secretly returned it.

And that was, like, a big deal.

In fact, if you're not familiar with Hanging Judge Parker,

his saying was, "It is not the severity

"of the punishment that deters crime,

but the certainty of it."

So now, if you are so moved by the flag

that you want one of your very own,

park officials say they know where you can get one

without having to break the law.

They found the flag, by the way.

It's pretty hard to hide a flag that big.

I mean, my mom felt I was safe there.

If I was gonna go anywhere, I was safe there.

It was this one-road downtown, and you had Arlie Mucks.

And that's where we would go as a news team after work.

And our newscast was at 10:00, so we were, you know,

going out at 10:30, 10:45

for, you know, I think, dollar pitcher night.

And that's where I learned to play pool.

And it was just a great group of people I worked with.

It was a great community. Everybody was friendly.

It was just a beautiful place to be.

And the place was absolutely gorgeous.

[ominous music]

[indistinct chatter]

- Hello, sir.

We have a local girl that's missing.

And we're just passing out flyers,

trying to get any information we can.

We just appreciate it if you might take this,

and if there's any information you have at all,

just let us know.

PERSON: And we're missing a really good friend of ours.

And we're wondering if you could take that.

You recognize it,

see the car driving around town or anything,

if you would give the police a call or the phone number

on there, you know, if you see her or the car

driving around town, anywhere you're at,

we'd appreciate it.

- From what I know, she's been missing since about 5:00

this past Thursday.

She apparently had been at work that evening

and had possibly gone to get something to eat,

and no one had seen her since then.

- So Missy and I have been best friends for 16 years.

And in 16 years, she's never done anything like this,

never would.

If she had a problem, wouldn't take a day off.

She would have called me.

She hasn't called me.

She didn't take anybody with her.

And it's not like her.

She's a friend-oriented person.

She wants friends with her.

And she just wouldn't do it.

CHARLENE: So I was the weekend reporter.

So I came in on Saturday morning-ish,

and I walked into the newsroom.

And I happened to see this flyer

sitting on our producer's desk,

and I picked it up.

And I asked her, what was this?

Where did this come from?

And she explained to me that some young people

had dropped it off, that their friend was missing,

that she had called the police department,

Portsmouth Police Department, that no missing person

report had been filed yet.

And so, at that time, it was, well, do we cover it?

Has it been confirmed?

You know, Missy was of age.

So, you know, there was this assumption that, well,

if someone's of age, they have a right

to disappear if they want to.

But when I looked at that picture of that young girl,

I knew. I just knew.

Like, my gut knew.

This was not a young girl who just took off and ran away.

PERSON: All the time I've known her,

she's always showed up for everything.

And that's why when something like this comes along,

I'm completely baffled about what happened.

CHARLENE: And so I called the number,

and I was able to meet up with her friends.

They were out putting flyers out,

you know, asking people, stopping cars,

you know, asking people if they'd seen her.

And I interviewed them.

And again, just that gut feeling I had

was reinforced because these were all

earnest young people in dire worry of their friend.

- Well, we're assuming that if there was a possibility

that Melissa had been with someone else or something,

that they may have stopped at a gas station to pick up gas.

And not only that, but with traffic coming in town

for holiday shopping, we're hoping that there'll be

enough people in and out that if there's anyone at all

that would have information, this would be

a good place to find them. - She wouldn't do it.

She wouldn't have really--

she couldn't do it without calling her mama.

She'd missed her mom a lot.

And she would have called somebody by now.

And on top of that, she has no money to take off.

She has a quarter tank of gas.

- You know, she was an ambassador to her college,

which meant the college had her go and recruit students

because they wanted students like her.

You know, she worked after school.

She was already a hard worker.

She had big dreams for her life.

You know, she went to meet her mom at bowling--

at a bowling church league.

Like, this was a girl who was doing everything

she was supposed to be doing, right?

It's everything we're told to do as young people.

You know, get a good education.

You know, work hard.

Have a good, close relationship with your parents.

Be a good kid.

She was a good kid.

PERSON: Knowing Melissa, like I do, I don't think

that she would have run off like she has.

And even if she had, I think she would have

contacted somebody else.

Maybe not her parents, but at least somebody else

to let everybody know she's OK.

- Those that know Melissa know that this isn't like her.

She's a very responsible person.

She often leaves notes for her mother

telling her where she's going.

And it wouldn't be like her just to run off.

- So after I interviewed them, I went to the police station

to kind of, you know, get an interview

with a police officer.

It was the weekend,

so there was usually nobody there

unless it was a dire emergency,

and I had to call the on-call person.

And I asked the dispatcher, and I just said, hey.

I said, has her information or has her tag number

been entered into what then was like the NCIC, which is, like--

I think people know it as a BOLO,

be on the lookout for.

And they said, well, no.

And they honestly didn't really even know

what I was talking about.

And so I said, all right.

Well, I said, are you going to?

There was no sense of urgency there.

And so I asked them, I said, well,

if you're going to-- do you mind

if we just kind of hang here?

We'll wait. I'd love to get that on camera.

And eventually, they just picked up the paper,

and they put her tag number into the system.

- All units be on lookout for a Melissa Witt,

Melissa Witt.

Be a white female, 19 years of age, 19 years of age.

Last seen Thursday, December 1, around 5:50 PM.

Have a possible Arkansas tag of Young Boy Tom 650.

Young Boy Tom 650.

- But at that point, there was still no missing person report.

And so I went back to the station.

And we did the story for the early newscast.

This is the last week before finals

on the West Ark campus.

But instead of cramming, many of these students

are wondering what has happened

to their friend Melissa.

In Fort Smith, I'm Charlene Shirk,

TV 5 first team.

[somber music]

[footsteps]

ANTHONY: My name is Anthony Parkinson.

I'm a deputy chief with the Fort Smith Police Department.

I oversee the non-uniform bureau,

and that consists of the Criminal Investigation Division

and Support Services Division.

I've been a police officer for 17 years with the department.

When I first became aware of the Melissa Witt case,

I mean, I'd been on the PD not very long.

You always had a lot of interest from outside--

family friends, relatives,

just citizens that want to know,

hey, what are you doing on this case?

You know, so it does have that publicity.

What's being done about it?

Are you gonna ever solve it?

And then that's when we kind of got

this cold case working group together,

so that way, we could dig into cold cases,

really go, you know, page by page in the case file,

and see if anything might have been overlooked or missed

or something that needs to be revisited.

A cold case is different because it may be

a 20-year-old cold case.

Witnesses may have passed away.

Friends and family may have moved off.

So it starts to get difficult to contact those people,

interview them.

And then you're going off of a case

that you had nothing to do with. .

Different types of writing.

You know, 20, 30 years ago, police wrote reports

different than they do now.

Technology has changed.

That's another big thing.

So when you're going back,

you really have to segregate what has been done on a case.

So much has changed that now you might be able

to process evidence with modern technology

and get better results.

[poignant music]

♪ ♪

ANTHONY: As we're working through the case,

what the detective is gonna be doing is,

they want to do follow-up interviews.

They want to talk with everyone that knew her.

What happened first 24, 48 hours

before she went missing?

Who did she speak to?

Friends, family.

Get as much information as we can

and trying to narrow down the timeline of events

of what happened.

Did she have any arguments with people?

You know, was she having a boyfriend issue?

Did she just recently break up?

Is she--who is she seeing?

Who is she dating?

What does her best friend know about her?

So this is where you really dive in deep

into getting to know everything about your victim.

And so the more you know about your victim,

the approach is, you're gonna know possibly

who may have done this to them.

Majority of the time, it's gonna be someone

that they know.

It is rare for a stranger just to come up

and do something like this.

CHARLENE: So Missy and Mary Ann's day

starts early morning.

You know, Missy's getting ready to go to school,

and she has an after-school job.

Mary Ann's getting ready to go to work.

You know, mothers and daughters,

they're in the kitchen.

You know, they're getting ready to go out the door,

and they get into an argument.

I think it was over money.

Missy needed an oil change, wanted money.

You know, I'm sure Mary Ann's like, you have a job.

You need to spend your money on your car,

like all mothers will tell you.

- After the argument-- it was a minor argument--

she ends up going to school.

CHARLENE: Missy gets to school.

She goes to a couple classes.

- Now, what we don't know, we assume she was in class.

She had two classes.

Unfortunately, roll call wasn't taken,

so no one was able to know

whether she was actually in the class.

But it was routine for her to meet up with her one friend

after the second class,

and then they went off campus to go eat.

CHARLENE: At lunch, she and a friend go,

I think, to the mall.

They get Chick-fil-A. They have lunch.

- So after visiting the mall, Melissa and her friend

went back to the friend's house and she,

according to the friend, dropped him off.

After that, we believe she went to work because she showed up

at work on time, and she worked

her normal shift at a local dentist office.

CHARLENE: She works her after-school job,

and she goes to leave.

And her car won't start.

And so she comes back in and says, my car won't start.

COWORKER: She came in.

She was a little upset because her car wouldn't start.

She had left her lights on.

She came in to find out about jumpstarting it,

and we decided to go out and jumpstart her car.

And we were able to get someone from next door to help us.

ANTHONY: A nearby business, there was someone outside.

So they ended up jumpstarting her vehicle for her.

And he mentioned, hey, you don't want to turn it off

because it may not start again,

and you'll have to jumpstart it.

- He's concerned. He's like, look, go home.

Don't shut your car off. Make sure it stays on.

You don't want to get stranded.

She realizes that she left her lights on.

Probably, her car was fine, but she--

YOU KNOW, out of precaution, she does go home.

- Her mom reported that her work clothes

were found inside the house.

So we believe that she did, in fact, go home, change,

and then she left.

CHARLENE: She changes her clothes.

She finds a note from her mom.

"Hey, come meet me at the bowling alley.

"It's church league night.

I'll buy you a burger."

So Melissa changes her clothes.

[pensive music]

♪ ♪

And she hops in her car, and she drives

down to the bowling alley.

She gets to the bowling alley.

She gets out of the car.

She never makes it into the bowling alley.

- Sometime between that 5:35 leaving work

and 6:30, we don't know what happened.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

An officer on patrol ended up finding Melissa's vehicle

in the parking lot of Bowling World

on December 4th.

Once the vehicle was located, the standard procedure

which was followed is,

everyone stays away from the vehicle.

And then detectives were called out to the scene,

so that way, it could be processed.

- I thought, what have we lost?

What evidence has been lost? What time has been lost?

And it's been sitting here the entire time.

JEFF: This morning, the vehicle was found

by a patrol officer at about 8:30 in the morning,

parked outside Bowling World here in Fort Smith.

The vehicle was taken to the police impound lot.

There appeared to be no foul play in the vehicle,

and everything was as normal.

The vehicle was locked, and it appeared to be normal.

It's not being considered as a crime scene

as such because, quite frankly, we don't suspect

foul play at this time.

The vehicle was found in a normal condition,

like you or I would park our vehicles,

locked and nothing tampered with.

- And I thought, somebody has got to take on this.

Somebody has got to let this community know

that this girl is missing, and her mother is worried.

And her friends are worried sick about her.

And we've got to mobilize and try to find her,

because at that point, nobody else was.

After Melissa's disappearance Thursday evening,

her friends distributed

thousands of flyers with her picture

and the description of her car.

Then on Sunday morning, police found her 1995

white Mitsubishi in the parking lot

of Bowling World in Fort Smith.

Ms. Witt, you wanted to talk to us today

because I can only imagine

that what's been going on in the community

has helped you get through this.

- Well, I do want to thank everyone in the community

because they've been so good.

And there have been so many prayers

of so many people that have gone out for her.

And even people that I don't know have just--

you know, they've just given overwhelming support.

And it has shown me certainly how much Melissa's loved

and how much I'm loved that I was unaware of.

And I think things like this do show us that sometimes.

- Mary Ann, I don't know how she held it together.

I really don't.

This was a woman of such strong faith

that you could feel this calmness

and this resolve coming from her.

- As far as we know,

nothing has been connected to her specifically

since she left work on that day.

And I'm just praying that whoever has her,

or, you know, whatever the circumstances are,

that she'll be able to come home.

And I'm praying that she is alive

and will be able to come home to me.

And one thing I want to say to her,

I want to tell her that she's loved

more than anything in the world.

And I'd just love to have her back

if she's able to see me or to hear me.

I love her with all my heart.

- All I could think of was my mother.

And I grew up with a very strict, cautious mother,

who was--"Lock your doors."

You know, "Don't talk to people.

Don't talk to strangers."

And all I could think of was that poor mother,

that poor mother calling the police,

telling them that her daughter hadn't come home,

them telling her that, well,

you guys had an argument that morning.

OK, mothers and daughters, we argue.

That's just part of our language.

It's how we communicate.

We are very close.

Like, mothers and daughters are bonded like that.

We think nothing of having an argument that morning

and then, you know, being invited

to go meet Mom for dinner that night.

And all I could think of was poor Mary Ann Witt

spending that whole night sick to her stomach and her heart,

worrying about her daughter.

My heart just went out to them, both of them.

You know, Melissa, wondering if that were me,

I would want somebody looking for me.

I wouldn't want somebody dismissing me,

dismissing my mother.

ANTHONY: When detectives got out there,

it had been raining, so there was a mist

to light rain--

it was changing off and on-- and the fog.

So it made it really difficult to see anything.

You also have to worry about what the water has done

to potential evidence.

So the vehicle wasn't able to be processed that evening

due to the conditions.

It was wet.

And when you're trying to get latent prints

and other evidence off of a vehicle,

you want it to be dry.

So the vehicle was towed and put into a facility,

so that way, it could dry, and the water would

naturally evaporate by itself.

Once the vehicle was dry, then our technicians

processed the vehicle.

- Not only are Melissa's worried friends

asking for your help, but so are police.

They say they'd like anyone who may have seen

this car, Melissa's white Mitsubishi,

at Bowling World around 6:00 on Thursday night to call.

They say, even if you don't think it's anything, call.

It may be just the lead they're looking for.

- Inside Melissa's vehicle, we end up finding

a Chick-fil-A cup, which looks like it may have corroborated

the story with her friend after school.

Then we found a red JanSport backpack

in the back seat that contained school items.

There was a Boyz II Men CD in the back seat,

and then in the trunk were jumper cables,

a foot pump, you know, to put pressure in a tire

or blow up, you know, sports balls,

something like that, and then a clothes hanger.

- It was--it took a turn

when someone from the bowling alley called

and said, hey, I've seen these stories

this weekend about a missing girl,

and they call her Missy.

And somebody turned in a set of keys,

and it says Missy on it.

ANTHONY: At some point during the day as well,

Melissa's keys were brought to our attention.

They were turned in at some point in the evening

by someone that found them in the parking lot.

And when detectives went and retrieved the keys,

they found blood on Melissa's keys.

- And they realized that there was blood on the keys,

and there was blood all over that parking lot.

ANTHONY: You know, the same thing is applying.

It was poor weather.

The rain was a mist to a light rain,

you know, not being able to see

very well and very clearly.

Wet weather is just covering the parking lot.

So there were several spots in the parking lot

where they believed they had found blood.

CHARLENE: I remember coming back

to the scene of the bowling alley

and having these little--

they used these little yellow flags,

these little yellow things, and they're numbered.

And they were all over the parking lot.

New information into the disappearance of Melissa Witt

has not brought any bright hopes.

Police are now releasing that three pools of blood

were found in the parking lot of Bowling World.

The blood, now determined to be human,

was found close to where they located Missy's car.

A Bowling World employee also turned in a set of keys

to police, and it is now confirmed

they belonged to her.

- So now they're focused on collecting

samples of the blood.

And if there's blood in the parking lot,

around her vehicle, in the back of the mind,

if she was bleeding, possibly,

or even the suspect was bleeding,

whatever vehicle we find associated with the suspect,

we're probably gonna be looking for some type of blood

inside that vehicle.

CHARLENE: For some reason,

law enforcement was not really using us, right?

They weren't turning to us.

They weren't saying, hey, help us get this word out,

like law enforcement does today, right?

The first thing they do is, like, let's contact the media.

Let's get the pictures out.

Let's manage the message so that we make sure

that what's getting out is accurate information.

And it was our stories running all weekend long that we heard

that her keys had been turned in

because in our stories, we called her Missy

because that's what her friends called her.

And the bowling alley manager realized

somebody turned in a pair-- a set of keys,

and it says "Missy" on it.

And then we went to the bowling alley

and saw that the parking lot had turned into a crime scene.

- So we collected the keys,

and now we have blood on the keys.

And we have blood in the parking lot,

trailing off to possibly a suspect's vehicle.

CHARITY: And here's Ray.

Yeah, Vines' interview,

which I know I read the interview.

Like, it was typed up.

[indistinct chatter]

You wanna take that in there, too, so it's on the table too?

[indistinct chatter]

PERSON: It is.

[line trilling]

PERSON: Hey, Brad. BRAD: Hey. How's it going?

PERSON: Pretty good. How are you?

BRAD: Ah, not too bad. You got a second?

So Friday, I guess one of the state police guys

reached out to our lieutenant and said

they found some evidence and all their stuff

in the Melissa Witt file case, if we wanted it.

So Charity went and picked it up,

and there is a box that is listed as evidence.

We've been looking for the past hour or so,

and I cannot find anywhere where this stuff was sent

to the crime lab.

You know, I kind of fell into law enforcement.

I wanted to go down a different career path.

And I started working as a dispatcher

for the sheriff's office.

And, you know, after about a month of that,

I was pretty much hooked.

I was 19, I believe, and I just got hooked

with the type of work, you know, the adrenaline,

the every call is different.

We have to open to get to go through it

because I don't, you know, want to contaminate anything

if it hasn't been sent.

Can y'all--can y'all check and see

if your labs had anything sent to it,

y'all would--whatever lab y'all would have used?

The longer I've done it, the more that you can give

people closure with anything,

you know, it makes a huge effect

on how you view life.

Getting closure to families, it's a huge reward.

BRAD: Yeah, or unless it's the stuff

that they took out of her house.

But, I mean, I don't think she--she wasn't a smoker.

BRAD: It's interesting.

BRAD: The older the case, though,

the more difficult it is

because with Melissa, the time that it took place,

I mean, you didn't have cell phones.

You didn't have debit cards.

In fact, the day that she went missing,

when they talked to Mr. Moulson

because he had spent the day with her

and had lunch with her,

you know, he was so proud that he went to the ATM

and used his ATM card for the first time

and got, like, $5 out.

And it was a big deal.

So you don't have the financial records,

the telephone records,

and things like that to backtrack.

So you rely a lot on witnesses and,

you know, family members and people

that knew the victim really well.

[soft dramatic music]

The bowling alley actually has two entrances.

From the way that it was kind of set up,

it seems like she had probably came in from this side.

It was a league night, so you can imagine

this parking lot being pretty full with cars.

According to the measurements and the maps that we have,

the earring and a hair tie was found

probably about 10 to 15 feet

towards the bowling alley back in the aisle.

There's really not any kind of blood or anything like that

until it gets back towards behind her vehicle,

which was somewhere where we're parked now.

And then the blood starts to pick up.

And from the blood pattern, you can tell

that she goes across to the parking spots behind us,

and she's taken up about--

I don't know--probably four parking spots in,

and then the blood stops.

So, to me, that tells me that, most likely,

she was attacked where the hairpiece

and the earring was located.

[whirring]

When the vehicle is found and the blood is located

at the scene, that moves the priority to the roof

because you know there's a confrontation.

You know that there's injury.

The stakes get a lot higher at that point.

You know, you have a lot more evidence to look at.

You've got, assuming that that's Melissa's blood--

at the time, they didn't know, but they were assuming.

You've got evidence to look for in,

you know, your vehicle stops or your suspects.

ANTHONY: So the one thing about the blood pattern is,

there was some blood by her vehicle,

and it trailed off almost as if

it was going toward the entrance

of the parking lot to Bowling World.

So this would have been over to the northwest.

It does not appear that she went willingly with someone.

CHARLENE: A small gold hoop earring and a hair comb

were also found by detectives who searched the area.

All the items have been sent to the crime lab,

but so far, no word if the blood is Melissa's.

What happened in this parking lot is what detectives

are desperately trying to find out.

You know, the investigation side of it,

they were really tight-lipped.

You know, they were not really free with information.

I mean, we knew they'd found her car.

We knew they'd found her keys,

mostly because people were telling us this.

And so, you know, I was showing up constantly.

I'm sure I was a real thorn in their side

because they're starting to get calls, too, right?

They're getting-- and you know what happens.

They're getting dozens of leads,

you know, most of them going nowhere.

They're trying to sift through what's real and what isn't.

So they're being inundated.

And I honestly don't think they knew how to handle that.

Once we knew the car was there, once we saw that parking lot,

I mean, we knew that something terrible had happened to her.

And now time was of the essence because somebody had her.

Somebody had her, and we had to find that person.

And we had to find her.

ANTHONY: So we received a tip from someone at Bowling World.

She was there on Thursday night,

and she had her son with her.

And at some point between 6:35 and 7:00,

she sent her son out to the parking lot

to get a book.

The kid went out, got the book, came back in.

It ended up being the wrong book.

So Mom said, hey, go back out, grab the correct book.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

The son went out there, went to the car,

and as he was outside, he heard people arguing.

And he heard a female scream.

And when he looked over, he saw a vehicle

with its lights on and he saw two people--

the way he described it was, one was bigger than the other.

He was scared, got the right book,

and went back inside and told his mom,

along with whoever else was at this table bowling.

- You know, I know that they knew at that point

they had something terrible on their hands, right?

But I think they so didn't want to give out

inconsistent or incorrect information,

they didn't give out information.

You know, witnesses have reported that they

saw two people arguing.

I think one witness even said that screaming was happening.

CHRIS: We have discovered at least two different incidents

on that parking lot that night

that may have been the altercation

involving the Black male

that was seen by a couple of witnesses.

One was an incident where some people

were just overjoyed because they'd won money at Bingo.

That could have been confused for what they saw.

The other was a Black man and a white woman

that were visiting the bar nearby

and had a little argument between each other.

What we're trying to tell people is,

is that there are still other possibilities.

CHARLENE: Now, the people who saw

that argument in the parking lot,

they weren't really sure then that--

that was Melissa Witt who they saw.

- The people that saw the argument in the parking lot

were never able to positively identify Melissa as the girl

or the woman involved in that.

Although the time frame was close,

we thought it was relevant.

And we would have been remiss had we not investigated

that avenue and put out a composite based

on what they thought they had seen.

We are still not set on any type of race

on the suspect, never.

We have not been since day one.

- We had to be very careful in reporting this,

that as much as we wanted and I wanted to keep it alive

every day, to not be putting out

information that was going to distract

or divert from the investigation.

- We get one tip that came in from Mary, Melissa's mother.

She received a phone call from a classmate of Melissa's.

And the classmate had said, have they found a body yet?

So red flags immediately went off.

We brought this guy in, interviewed him,

conducted a polygraph,

but nothing substantial came of it.

- Any lead we got, you know,

we immediately contacted the detectives.

We immediately shared what we knew.

And even if I knew this is probably not valid,

I've got to share it.

I've got to pass it on.

- We had another tip that came in.

This time, actually, again, it came

from Mary, Melissa's mother.

Someone had mailed a rubber penis

to her in the mail,

and there was a note inside the package

about a room, a certain room number, room 25.

Detectives followed up with this person, investigated it.

Ended up being someone who was mentally handicapped

and had a lot of issues,

and that person was eventually ruled out.

So during investigation like this,

it's common practice to look at your known

sex offenders in the area.

Detectives reached out to one known sex offender,

who had a history of sexual offenses against women.

CHARLENE: Police are searching the backroads of Franklin,

Washington, and Crawford counties,

in an effort to find Taylor,

who's wanted on charges of rape.

But police also want to question him

about the kidnapping of Melissa Witt.

REPORTER: When the news hit the airwaves

that William Dillard Taylor was in police custody,

his ex-wife breathed a sigh of relief.

- It's just--oh, God. Thank God.

It's took a load off my shoulders.

REPORTER: Taylor is accused

of raping his daughter and stepdaughter.

But Taylor's current wife and his sister

believe he is in no way a dangerous man.

And at the same time, they believe

he is innocent of all charges.

- There are so many innocent people that are innocent.

Years later, they come back, and they're saying,

you know, they did this to this guy on TV,

you know, and he was innocent of the charges.

I just don't want to see that happen now.

REPORTER: She also says her husband is, in no way,

connected to the disappearance of Morgan Nick

and Melissa Witt.

- He was with me

the night that the little girl disappeared.

And there's no way you could get William Taylor

to a bowling alley.

- They heavily looked at this person.

You know, they looked at his vehicles,

everything about him, interviewed him,

but nothing ever panned out.

[sirens wailing]

ROB: You know, it was June of 1995.

There was a ball game in the evening.

Morgan left her mom for just a few minutes.

Now, it could have been five minutes.

It could have been 15 minutes.

But her and a couple kids were playing up on a hill.

And we've got pictures I'll show you.

And the two kids left Morgan for just minutes

while she emptied her shoe out, and then she disappeared.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Some of the things we've seen is, is there's overlap.

You know, you look at certain suspects

that might be good for this case.

And then they're also suspects in other cases.

You know, Charlie Vines comes to mind because...

BRETT: We don't believe that we have everything

that this person did.

We believe that there's more out there.

- Charlie Vines had attempted to murder a girl

out here in Crawford County, and he got caught in the act.

You know, he was convicted

of two in Crawford County,

one an attempted, and then two in Fort Smith.

And he could be linked to other cases--

Melissa Witt.

I'm not saying he is. He just could be.

REUBEN: We initially received a tip

from Alma Police Department.

There was a individual who had a relative who was in prison,

who had information on the Morgan Nick

investigation, supposedly.

- So then the next logical step is to go talk to this inmate.

And we had to identify that inmate

through the tipster, and the tipster we found

to be that inmate's spouse.

- During that investigation or during that interview,

there was a lot of confusion on--

we were actually talking about Morgan Nick,

and he kept telling us we're barking up

the wrong tree with Charlie Ray Vines

being involved in Morgan Nick.

He mentioned just several things about Vines,

that he liked to see blood, that he liked knives,

that, potentially-- I think he said something like

he potentially killed 30 people or something.

We could tell that there was some confusion there.

So after the interview, I contacted the jail

and requested jail calls.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Hello. This is a free call from--

WILLIAM: William.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: An inmate at Cummins Unit.

This call is subject to recording and monitoring.

REUBEN: We left the jail.

He was genuinely confused on us talking about Charlie Ray Vines

being involved in Morgan Nick.

- He was saying, hey, the FBI came,

spoke to me about Charlie Ray Vines.

And he said, but they kept talking to me

about Morgan Nick.

- And then his wife was like, well, I told him

what you wanted me to say.

And he said, no, not Nick.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- You can't go anywhere around town

without seeing Melissa Witt's face.

Now, employees at Donrey Media want to make sure

you can't even go out of town without seeing her.

Each day that passes brings new frustration

and worries for the family and friends of Melissa Witt.

So the members of the Grand Avenue Baptist Church

have put up this banner asking the community

to keep Missy in their prayers.

They're supposed to say you're not--

you know, don't take things personally.

But I would go home at the end of my shift,

and all I could think of was, what else can we do?

How else can we cover it?

And, you know, I was a new reporter.

This was the first big missing person case I had ever covered.

So I just kept thinking, what am I missing?

What am I missing? What am I not doing?

What should I be doing?

I was just focused. I was just determined.

I was determined to see this to the end,

no matter-- no matter how it ended.

With their friend missing and the days going by,

there is a rush to spread the word as far and as fast

as it can go.

And so far, they've gotten few tips.

But they haven't been very encouraging.

And Missy's friends are starting to worry.

- Tomorrow is my birthday.

- Mm-hmm. - OK.

- Tomorrow is my birthday.

And Missy has celebrated

almost all of my birthdays with me since I've known her.

And I just want her home for my birthday right now.

You know, it makes you realize what's important.

And that friendship is one of the most

important things to me.

And that's--I want it back.

I want it back.

CHARLENE: The Fort Smith Police Department

has beefed up its efforts to find her,

but her friends want to find more than just Missy's car.

They want to find the person most of them

have known since kindergarten.

And they want to find her safe and sound.

- Missy right now, we're doing the world to find you.

If you're somewhere, just hang in.

We are doing everything we can do

to find you right now.

And we love you. Just hang in there.

CHARLENE: In Fort Smith, I'm Charlene Shirk,

TV5 first team.

ANTHONY: You know, in law enforcement, people can get

real touchy with, you know, don't mess with my case.

And when people retire and leave,

and they have a case that wasn't solved,

they might get defensive.

And I'm not of that type.

To me, I want all the help.

If we can bring in the FBI and our surrounding agencies

to help with this and work together,

then why would we not do that?

So I definitely see this as a benefit

where everyone is working together towards this goal

of solving the case.

REUBEN: And the whole time, we're trying to understand,

like, where's the confusion coming from?

Like, the tip said Nick.

And then to actually understand,

oh, he was confused because he meant Witt,

well, that now brings us into understanding

that, OK, Charlie Ray Vines may have had some involvement

in Melissa Witt's case.

- Listening to the jail calls and it adding up

with what we experienced on the interviews,

then it makes his information about Witt more genuine

involving Charlie Vines.

And, you know, Melissa Witt being another closed cold case

in this area around that same time as Morgan Nick,

it causes you to consider, OK, the information is viable,

and Charlie Vines is a good suspect because of his history.

You know, could this be another unknown victim

yet associated with him?

Basically, I've talked to most of you.

This case is over 25 years old now,

and it's extensive.

So what I wanted to do is

pull in people that I've worked with,

the kind of open-minded thinkers that will

challenge the status quo and say, you know,

hey, I need to speak up.

This seems like a silly idea.

And so we're pushing for open-mindedness,

out-of-the-box thinking, stuff like that.

What I wanted to do was pull people from every agency,

Fort Smith PD, Crawford County, Sebastian County,

Van Buren, the FBI row here.

We've also found where, you know,

you go into an organization, and some guy

who's no longer there has worked leads

and done a unilateral investigation

on their own and told no one.

And you find that binder later, and you're like, wow.

And 99% of the time, it's gonna be nothing, right?

But there may be one little nugget of information in there

or something we just--we need to see for the bigger picture.

You know, looking through this case,

we found decades ago,

someone might get a lead, and then they held on to it

because they thought, this is a good lead.

I'm gonna run it to ground.

And that's kind of-- that's kind of bullcrap, right?

So we want the kind of people that'll be like,

hey, this is a good lead.

Let's get it to the team and let's everybody look at it

and ensure it's a good lead and run it to ground

and get the job done, complete the mission.

And so, you know, that's my goal in mind.

That's kind of what I have anticipated for this group.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

OFFICER: We can tell you that at approximately 9:40 AM

this morning, a call came in to the Franklin County

Sheriff's Office of the discovery of a body.

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office

responded first to the scene.

After viewing the scene,

the Franklin County Sheriff's Office contacted

the Arkansas State Police

and other area law enforcement agencies.

The State Police Criminal Investigation Division,

along with the Fort Smith Police Department's

Major Crimes Unit, responded to the scene.

Upon arriving at the scene, we found a white female,

who is nude,

lying, for the most part, facedown

off of a National Forest service road,

approximately 30 feet or so off of the roadway.

And the body had been there for a period of time.

We did not have an estimation on the time.

That will be left up for the medical examiner's office.

- No comment.