you? ten days out is a long time on a kidnapping. i think, in this instance, you can probably give it a little more possibility that she s alive because she was an adult. it s possible. with that new break in the case, the family stepped up its media campaign. we are living through every parents nightmare. we just want to shannon to come home. they started raising money for a possible ransom demand, canvassing the city with flyers and more. we put 77 billboards all around the city. i felt that if people see her face, they can t move her. shannon s family and friends kept waiting, but no ransom demands came in. that was the one and only call. as time goes on, you realize, she s gone. she s not coming back. law enforcement focus on the key lead. that softball umpire, butch hinton. he s still the prime suspect in the disappearance of shannon, i m assuming?
we would ve been able to maybe look at the vehicle at the time and see if there was any forensic evidence. shannon had been missing for days by the time of forensics team got a real look at the car. when they processed the chief, what did they find? was there anything there. well that s another interesting thing. they came to the conclusion, the crime scene people dead, that the car had been whiped down! so someone had made an effort to clean the car up? yes. shannon s parents felt certain that he had kidnapped their daughter. and hope he d be arrested. but days turned to weeks. weeks two months, with no resolution. they came to realize the unbearable, they would never see her again. photographing others happy events became too painful for lewis and yvonne. is it difficult that you re in the business of gathering intimate memories for families and yet not being able to do the same for your child? yes i was discouraged from that. we tried one, and she was
A college student goes missing in broad daylight from her off-campus job at a softball field; investigators receive a mysterious phone call that changes.
crying, and she usually operates my camera in the back of the church. too close? i went back to check and she was crying. and i said that s not fair to the bride and groom, it s not fair to us. so that was the last couple of weddings that i had. i finished them, and never booked another one again. to this day. difficult as it was, they can still kept up the awareness campaign in the press. until s southern twist! five once after she disappeared. the phone rang. it was ten after 11. and a friend in atlanta said, butch hinton s house is on fire. investigators determined the fire was deliberately set. and when he filed a insurance claim on the house, he was arrested for fraud. he was convicted, and sentenced to nine years in prison. it was great to have him off the streets. but, that just left shannon s family and shannon s friends
yeah, take the car. shannon s friends drove the nissan back to campus. the melendi s were reeling. you re worried where she is. right. it did not take long to hear back in miami that she was missing. and martina vasquez found out in the worst way possible. i was got up and was ready to go to class, and my father looked worried. he just handed me a copy of the local section of the miami herald. it says miami family is flying up to atlanta to search for their daughter. shannon melendi. it was surreal! by the time anne read those words, the famile was already in atlanta. feeling dazed and desperate. i was like, what s going on? what s going on? a question that would consume