torn. in september of 1993, a jury found roy melanson guilty of first-degree murder. he was sentenced to life in prison. see these bastards, the devastation they leave behind, nobody knows. they think they killed an individual, but they killed dozens of people. michelle s father is thankful to forensic science and the volunteers who worked so diligently to find his daughter. you can t express the gratitude. i just couldn t believe that it finally came to an end. the system of justice worked in this particular case. whether the system itself ever awards justice to a victim or their family is, in my opinion, a hard question to answer. when you look at the loss of life in this particular case and
told she was missing, they instituted what was to become the largest manhunt in colorado history. there were hundreds of people in the woods literally walking hand in hand across fields and mountains. search teams covered more than 3,000 square miles of isolated mountain landscape but found no sign of michelle or her red station wagon. it was as if michelle had simply disappeared. then, a week after she was reported missing, there was a potential break. a local rancher told police about a german shepherd that had come down from the mountains and chased his cattle. the rancher said he shot and killed the dog. the name on the dog s collar was okie, michelle s german
find. we are a multidisciplinary, entirely volunteer organization that helps law enforcement look for clandestine graves and to recover evidence and to recover bodies from those graves. for necrosearch, the starting point was the braided hair that was believed to be from michelle wallace. forensic plant ecologist vicki trammell looked for any plant material that was in the hair. the hair had spent five years outside most likely being drug around by scavengers like coyotes. so my question was not so much where is the body, because i had no way of determining that, but where had the hair spent five years? the lack of soil in the hair suggested the body had not been buried. the hair wasn t muddy and there was bleach marks. in other words, bleached by the sun in the places that were exposed.
inferences that were drawn from the fact that he was buying clothing in downtown gunnison, driving michelle wallace s vehicle at that time, which told us he knew she was dead and he knew she was not around to make a report of a stolen vehicle. he was brazen about that particular fact. by this time, roy melanson was serving time in a kentucky prison for burglary, but was extradited to colorado to face trial for murder. melanson pleaded not guilty and even refused to attend the trial. instead, he listened to the proceedings from his prison cell. we are not required to prove motive. the issue got raised, however, during the course of the trial in closing argument. because the defense said, where s the motive? after the defense raised that issue, i asked the jury to look at the zipper that was recovered from the levis, because it was
she killed herself with an overdose of barbiturates. when my daughter was killed, she was killed. simple. michelle s mother left a suicide note which included one last wish. george actually showed me that note that said, when you find our daughter, bury her remains next to me. bury her beside me. with no evidence of foul play, and without a body, the case of michelle wallace s disappearance went completely cold. because of the difficulties in proving the crime of murder without being awfully darn sure that your victim is dead. five long years passed, until investigators got another potential break. a hiker on an isolated trail found what looked like a clump