everything was a blur. all i m thinking is, is shannon really gone? we interviewed her roommates, boyfriends, everybody is a suspect. then a phone rings. right. he says i ve kidnapped her, i have her. and we ran his criminal history. that s when all the bells went off. he pulls in, asked me to get in the car. i feel the cold blade against my neck. he carries me to the basement of his home. it was jaw-dropping! just chilling! they started digging and they found women s clothing. it was just escalating! escalating! there were so many victims, aren t there? there. were there still are. until this guy is no longer in existence. i will carry this fight! hello, and welcome to dateline! shannon melendi dreamed big. at 15, she wanted to become a supreme court justice. in college, she scored a prestigious internship at former president jimmy carter s foundation. then, suddenly she vanished! detectives had a suspect in their sights. but it would take years
are you ready for me are you ready are you ready nearly two years after shannon melendi s disappearance, butch hinton was serving time in prison for fraud after a mysterious fire at his home. shannon s parents, who had already been suspicious of butch hinton thought it could be a sign. i said, well, he probably burned the house itself to cover evidence. now the end of the investigation into the disappearance, had a deadly clock taking to his release. the case was still open at that point in time. we realize no new needs are coming in, and we decided at
not mean that you cannot prosecute a murder case, it does of course complicate it. but it would be a steep mountain to climb? absolutely. still the prosecutor did have some key witnesses that painted a portrait of butch and possibly linked him to shannon s murder. inmates who shared a cell with him. butch never really confessed per se to anybody. but he made a horribly incriminating statements to 3 inmates that to me were so believable. one of them remembered an eerie late night conversation. but she had woken up in the middle of the night and said i don t do this, the demon inside of me killed that girl. and went back to sleep. and yet jailhouse snitches, as they re called, get a lot of side eye. and what is this guy get an exchange for sitting here and telling us the story?
u.s. officials are undergoing efforts to recover debris after shooting at a suspected chinese surveillance balloon saturday. secretary of defense lloyd austin said the u.s. fighter aircraft floated down in a statement, china s foreign ministry expressed wrong dissatisfaction with the u.s. of u.s. force. calling it an overreaction. the biden administration has responded saying, quote, we are confident we re seeking to monitor sensitive military sites. now, back to dateline. welcome back to dateline, i m craig melvin. missing college student, shannon melendi s was seen at a softball tournament, we re at umpire butch hinton was acting strangely. word had it then he kept his eye on shannon more than the ball. police were quick to question
hands behind my back. tammy, tammy what is going on here? i m not registering it is a problem until i feel the cold played against my neck. and he said you know this is? a knife. and if you don t cooperate i mean i use it on you. the man with a bright lead, as you might suspect, was butch hinton. he tells me things like, i want to waste you right now. if you don t cooperate, i ll do you like i did the other two. i ll waste you right now? yes. and at some point i move from the front seat to the back. and he proceeds to tie me further. to use bandanas tied together on my mouth. he dictates me. he is what is known as hog tying, and places may in the