The Murder of Melissa Witt Still Open Investigation
Dec 9, 2019 7:26:59 GMT
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Post by hi224 on Dec 9, 2019 7:26:59 GMT
It was 1 December 1994, when a then 19-year-old Melissa "Missy" Witt was kidnapped from the Bowling World parking lot in Fort Smith, AR. Detectives said the well-liked teen was going to surprise her mom who was in a bowling league, but Missy never made it inside. Reports say that blood was found in the parking lot, her vehicle and there were signs of a struggle.
The community, investigators and her mother searched relentlessly for her by passing out flyers and knocking on doors. Unfortunately on 13 January 1995, Missy's body was found by two hunters in the Ozark National Forest near Turner Bend. She was nude and placed near a headstone-like rock. To this day her clothes haven't been found.
Her case has remained opened and to this day investigators still get tips from time to time and conduct interviews.
Sgt. Daniel Grubbs, who works in the Fort Smith Police Dept.'s Evidence Division, has read the entire case file. Grubbs said when he enters the evidence room, he's haunted every time he walks past the boxes labeled with Missy's name.
Inside the boxes are pieces of Missy's life, such as her journal and evidence from her murder.
"A lot of it is people from the past that we believe are suspects. We've pulled DNA. So we have DNA comparisons. Where she was found, there is a ton of earth that we took that was underneath her body throughout that area. So, we have maintained that for any type of evidence re-evaluation," Grubbs said.
5newsonline.com/2017/01/13/melissa-witts-body-found-22-years-ago-investigation-still-open/
Police questioned a man who had committed murder in the next town over, but he had a solid alibi. Another suspect had been posing as a police officer not far from the bowling alley, but he was also cleared. As LaDonna Humphrey, a victim's advocate, put it, "The number of sex offenders in the area will blow your mind." However, they were all ruled out.
Travis Dale Crouch is an Arkansas native now imprisoned in Colorado for the rape of a woman he met at a mall parking lot. He forced her to go with him to a remote mountaintop where he made her undress. After raping her, he passed out from the drugs he had taken, and she escaped. He had a long history of drug abuse and alcoholism and violence against women. Crouch was in Fort Smith at the time of Missy's murder and he lived and worked a mile away from where her body was found. A church camp that he went to as a child was also nearby. At the time of the kidnapping and murder, he was a carpenter at that same church camp.
Humphrey disagrees with the law as to when Missy was killed. Investigators think she was taken into the forest and raped and murdered there. Humphrey agrees Missy died there because of the leaves in her airways and lungs but noted that it was a very cold night and unlikely that the rape occurred there. Humphrey thinks that Missy might have been held in a house or other building for as long as five days before the murder. She stated that she did believe it was possible that Missy escaped. She was about a mile away from the church camp. She and a member of her crew ran the route one night to get a feel for what Missy went through if in fact that is what happened. They ran from the church to where she was found. It's a rough and rocky terrain. "We did it barefoot to see if it was plausible and it was. Your adrenaline kicks in and you don't feel pain the same way, especially if it's a life or death situation." Humphrey did add, "I'm not sure she would have gotten very far running like that. The killer might have come back, maybe more than once, to make sure he didn't leave any evidence that he missed in the dark.
Another suspect at the top of the list is Larry Swearingen, an electrician who was visiting family in Arkansas when Missy was taken. Currently, he's on death row for the muder of Melissa Trotter in Montgomery Co., Texas. When Trotter and Swearingen first met they seemed to hit if off. Afterwards, he told friends about the cute college girl who was meeting him for lunch the next day. When she was a no-show he became very angry. Two days later, Swearingen and Trotter were seen together on the Montgomery College campus, getting into his vehicle. On 2 January 1999, her body was discovered in Sam Houston National Forest. The similarities are notable. Both were 19-year-old community college students who shared the same first name. Both went missing in early December and were found strangled to death in January in a national forest, and per one of Trotter's relatives, she was wearing a Mickey Mouse watch like Missy's and in both cases, the killer took the watch.
It was concluded that Trotter's body had been in the woods no less than three days and no more than fifteen, and Swearingen was in jail at that time for traffic violations. Dr James Arends, an entomologist, theorized her body had been kept in a cold place, possibly a freezer. These professional opinions would support Humphrey's idea that Missy Witt was held captive for some time before her body was found.
www.aymag.com/murder-mystery-mickey-mouse-killer-conclusion/
old.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3zqdvx/unsolved_murder_of_melissa_witt_in_1994_arkansas/
The community, investigators and her mother searched relentlessly for her by passing out flyers and knocking on doors. Unfortunately on 13 January 1995, Missy's body was found by two hunters in the Ozark National Forest near Turner Bend. She was nude and placed near a headstone-like rock. To this day her clothes haven't been found.
Her case has remained opened and to this day investigators still get tips from time to time and conduct interviews.
Sgt. Daniel Grubbs, who works in the Fort Smith Police Dept.'s Evidence Division, has read the entire case file. Grubbs said when he enters the evidence room, he's haunted every time he walks past the boxes labeled with Missy's name.
Inside the boxes are pieces of Missy's life, such as her journal and evidence from her murder.
"A lot of it is people from the past that we believe are suspects. We've pulled DNA. So we have DNA comparisons. Where she was found, there is a ton of earth that we took that was underneath her body throughout that area. So, we have maintained that for any type of evidence re-evaluation," Grubbs said.
5newsonline.com/2017/01/13/melissa-witts-body-found-22-years-ago-investigation-still-open/
Police questioned a man who had committed murder in the next town over, but he had a solid alibi. Another suspect had been posing as a police officer not far from the bowling alley, but he was also cleared. As LaDonna Humphrey, a victim's advocate, put it, "The number of sex offenders in the area will blow your mind." However, they were all ruled out.
Travis Dale Crouch is an Arkansas native now imprisoned in Colorado for the rape of a woman he met at a mall parking lot. He forced her to go with him to a remote mountaintop where he made her undress. After raping her, he passed out from the drugs he had taken, and she escaped. He had a long history of drug abuse and alcoholism and violence against women. Crouch was in Fort Smith at the time of Missy's murder and he lived and worked a mile away from where her body was found. A church camp that he went to as a child was also nearby. At the time of the kidnapping and murder, he was a carpenter at that same church camp.
Humphrey disagrees with the law as to when Missy was killed. Investigators think she was taken into the forest and raped and murdered there. Humphrey agrees Missy died there because of the leaves in her airways and lungs but noted that it was a very cold night and unlikely that the rape occurred there. Humphrey thinks that Missy might have been held in a house or other building for as long as five days before the murder. She stated that she did believe it was possible that Missy escaped. She was about a mile away from the church camp. She and a member of her crew ran the route one night to get a feel for what Missy went through if in fact that is what happened. They ran from the church to where she was found. It's a rough and rocky terrain. "We did it barefoot to see if it was plausible and it was. Your adrenaline kicks in and you don't feel pain the same way, especially if it's a life or death situation." Humphrey did add, "I'm not sure she would have gotten very far running like that. The killer might have come back, maybe more than once, to make sure he didn't leave any evidence that he missed in the dark.
Another suspect at the top of the list is Larry Swearingen, an electrician who was visiting family in Arkansas when Missy was taken. Currently, he's on death row for the muder of Melissa Trotter in Montgomery Co., Texas. When Trotter and Swearingen first met they seemed to hit if off. Afterwards, he told friends about the cute college girl who was meeting him for lunch the next day. When she was a no-show he became very angry. Two days later, Swearingen and Trotter were seen together on the Montgomery College campus, getting into his vehicle. On 2 January 1999, her body was discovered in Sam Houston National Forest. The similarities are notable. Both were 19-year-old community college students who shared the same first name. Both went missing in early December and were found strangled to death in January in a national forest, and per one of Trotter's relatives, she was wearing a Mickey Mouse watch like Missy's and in both cases, the killer took the watch.
It was concluded that Trotter's body had been in the woods no less than three days and no more than fifteen, and Swearingen was in jail at that time for traffic violations. Dr James Arends, an entomologist, theorized her body had been kept in a cold place, possibly a freezer. These professional opinions would support Humphrey's idea that Missy Witt was held captive for some time before her body was found.
www.aymag.com/murder-mystery-mickey-mouse-killer-conclusion/
old.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3zqdvx/unsolved_murder_of_melissa_witt_in_1994_arkansas/