If i dont get this taken care of, they are going to blow off my head. Was he afraid he was next . No clues, no leads. Two shocking crimes. One for money and one for love. Was there a connection . This had a twist. So ugly and wrong. She was my friend. Politically connected lawyers in south florida. The rothstein law firm. A panoramic view to the ocean. A juggernaut by the mid2,000s. Led by more than 70 attorneys. A columnist for the sun sentinel. He thinks i am king of the world. This by the book attorney found success for herself and her clients. He was a workaholic who loved what she did. No shrinking violet either. Melissa loved the boozy splashy office parties as much as the other lawyers. She found herself a nice slice of the american pie. Thats the thing about 38yearold Melissa Lewis. Even as she raised her voice with the senior partners, her sad end was not far off. Her unexpected death would get caught up in a chain of events out of a john grisham novel. Billions in fraud. Melissa lewis at the start of everything. It ended up being the beginning of the end. Missy as her family called her had come so far. Penthouse lawyering was not likely for this dropout. Her mother here was a kid who didnt finish high school, she got the ged ticket. Correct. She was in a hurry to get on with life. Focused on finish college and go for a law degree. She breezed past the younger law students to become the editor of the law review. She caught the eye of one of her professors, Scott Rothstein who took her on as an intern. The Office Manager met her on her first day. What are did she bring to the party . She was smart and capable and everything you want in an associate attorney. She was also one of the nicest people she ever met. The two became fast friends. We were like sisters. She knew my faults and flaws and she loved me anyway. Debra and melissa saw the firm grow 10fold. Their boss, scott was the front man. He hobnobbed with a whos who of people from sports, politics and business and even future president s. Fundraisers, scott was your man. Once your name gets out there, you cannot imagine how many people knock on your door. The door scott knocked on was melissas. She could handle it and she wouldnt let anything fall through the cracks. She specialized in employment, but volunteers for battered women and victimss rights and worked on building a Memorial Garden for crime victims. She was a champion for the underdog. She met a lawyer and married. Debra was a brides maid. Her best friends marriage had ended in a messy divorce. That are divorce just devastated her. After melissas divorce, she took on a full time job. Best aunt ever. Carrie was her sister. Missy didnt have children . She didnt want children. She wanted her career. When her marriage was in trouble, she played the same great aunt role. The two were inseparable at work and outside the office. She is cooking for me and the kids and we have movie nights. After her divorce, a still shaky melissa started dating, but work, not relationships, would occupy her front and center. Her diligence paid off. In 2008 after seven years at the firm, the former intern was made the first female partner. She shared with me early on she hoped to be a judge one day. Debra had done well for herself. After all the years working as a paralegal and keeper of the supply cabinet, she was promoted to chief operating officer. Not bad for someone who didnt finish college. Things were going well at the rothstein law firm. Yes, yes. Then came march 5th after melissa made partner. It was a wednesday night. Debra tried to call her several times and not no answer. The next morning when she was a no show at work, debra called her repeatedly and got ahold of her sister, carrie. She was like me. Somethings wrong. Debra told scott. The well connected attorney he was, he called a Police Officer he knew where melissa lived. The officer agreed to meet them at melissas house. When they got there, everyone seemed to be normal. Nothing was tossed around . Nothing. The only thing a miss was in her garage. Her caddy suv was gone and they clued to something bizarre. A fine mist of what looked like orange spray paint in the garage. I started coughing really bad and i said thats pepper spray. Like many women, melissa was known to carry a canister of it for self protection. Had she been attacked . Had she used it . She never made it into her house. Something happened in that garage. Something very disturbing. It wasnt looking good for rising attorney Melissa Lewis. Police find melissas car, but melissa is not in it. Where is melissa. Poots tthats the million do question. To look them in the eyes and do that. 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Weve got more 4g lte coverage than tmobile or sprint. And if you switch now, you can get a brand new smartphone for free. Cricket wireless. Something to smile about. Fort lauderdale attorney Melissa Lewis was missing and friends and family were in a panic. She had not responded to phone calls and didnt show up for work. She is not to take a Mental Health day. No. This was going to be a high profile case. Melissas boss was a power broker attorney who had a little extra juice with local police. Plantation Police Detective brian kendall. He was our union attorney. We knew him and they were friends of his. The mysteries piled up. Her car was gone and there was pepper spray all over her garage. Melissa had a dog and there was prepper pray on the fogs face as well. Our concern is raised that she was in danger. Detectives wanted to know what melissa had been wearing the previous day at work. Debra knew exactly. A new brown pant suit with pink pin stripes. She was captured on security cameras talking with another lawyer at 7 00 p. M. After leaving, her sister carrie said she went to the super market. How do you know . She called my daughter that night. She was the last to speak to her. They checked store surveillance and there was melissa in the cosmetics aisle reaching for something on the shelf. The camera showed her leaving, documenting the start of her pathway to doom. You have a timeline and what she was wearing. When we believe she arrived home based on the distance to her house. It was probably around 8 30. From the pepper spray on the walls and floor, it appeared melissa was attacked in the garage. Detectives also found a small button on the garage floor, perhaps riped from that pant suit. One detective had an idea. Use the gps and Security System in her victim to locate her. The cadillac has on star and they are able to activate it and tell us the location of the vehicle through gps and brought us to this parking lot. It was about a half mile from melissas house in this parking lot that she never went to. You can open the vehicle. They unlocked the vehicle for us. Inside the suv, disturbing clues. What did you find . A suit jacket that she was wearing the night before. On the suit jacket there was a missing button. That is significant because the corresponding button was on her garage floor. For smelled of pepper spray and there were two shoes found in the car and nothing else. Melissa was wearing a sterling silver ring, diamond earrings and a 5,000 watch. She had an expensive handbag and iphone. It could be a target of an opportunistic grab and run. We have no clues or leads and dont have suspects identified. Police found a tiny drop of melissas blood in her car and on a tile in her house. There were no fingerprints. Dna testing would take longer. Now the question is where is melissa. Thats the Million Dollar question. Two days after she went missing, a worker made a gruesome discovery. He was poking around with a rake. Its just a mannequin and he realized it was a body. It was 38yearold Melissa Lewis. The missing persons case was now a murder investigation. Its still a whodunit. Her body was floating in this canal. The news media picked up on the story. My husband told me. He came to my work and told me. I broke down. I couldnt believe it. Police called the victims best friend, debra. When they told me they found her body, i collapsed to the ground. She was dumped in a drainage canal. This beautiful, wonderful person who was nothing but kind. When the medical examiners report was completed, it showed she had been strangled. That is such a personal thing to do to somebody. To have to look them in the eyes and do that. Up close and personal killing, no question. But the timeless questions of all investigations went unanswered. Who . And why . A person of interest. Very close to home. I said oh, no, he better not have done anything to her. A missing cell phone was great interest to police. Who was with that cell phone was most likely the last person with melissa. Mines way better. This ones below market price and has bluetooth. Same here, but this one has Leather Seats use the cars. Com app to compare price, features and value. Gives skin the moisture it needs and keeps it there longer with lockin Moisture Technology skin is petal smooth after all, a cleansers just a cleanser unless its olay. The hunt was on for a suspect in the strangulation murder of Melissa Lewis. The lawyers body was found floating in a canal two days after she went missing. They looked at her circle. Was there something in the background that accounts for what happened . We dont think so. She is a prominent attorney and safety conscious and carries pepper spray. Melissa specialized in people with gripes. Employment lawsuits. Detectives couldnt find history of bad blood between melissa and her clients. Detectives talked to the exhusband and his alibi was solid. They looked at the current men in her life. She was a single woman who was dating. We assigned detectives and they were alibied out pretty quickly. They wanted to talk to her best friend, debra. They wanted to find out what she liked to do. Did she have strange men in her home . Most nights she was either at da ras house or home with her dogs, george and gracie. Still they continued to pick debras brain. You cant imagine the questions that they ask you. Detectives also talked to melissas sister, carrie. When asked who she thought might have done this, her reaction was immediate. I said he may not have done anything to her. Who was he . My exhusband. We had just gotten divorced. He got served boy hy her. You thought he had something to do with it . She said he came to her house to scare her. He had a record so they checked out the sisters ex. She was a subject early on. He consented to any type of questions we asked of him and voluntarily answered them. He had been released from prison in the past. You have not ruled him out . Detectives shifted to something that might provide the first break in the case. With melissas iphone missing, they put in a request to the phone company to see if they could track her cell. When they got the report, the detective couldnt believe what he saw. It had been active after the murder and someone had gone into her voice mail and played back messages and read texts. Try to make sense as to why he would want to do Something Like this. Police were dumbfounded that someone wouldnt know that a smart phone was a detectives best friend and police could track them. It was either bold or stupid or both. This concept of pinging, its telling the towers here i am. Its giving a general vicinity of an area where that cell phone communicated. The phone records showed that person had been on the move from the time of the murder into the next day. How important is the story told by the cell phone . Very important. Its like someone dropping popcorn leaving a trail. Cell phone towers dont pinpoint exact locations. From the cell tower, there is a three to four mile radius that we are looking for to figure out where the phone is. Investigators believe she was killed in her garage around 8 30 p. M. On wednesday. It stopped in an area in Miami Gardens. From midnight to about 5 00 a. M. , the phone is in one location. Thursday it went to Fort Lauderdale and then further north to pompano beach. Afterwards it turned back to Fort Lauderdale. Somewhere along the way, the signal was lost. Either the battery died or the killer dumped the phone. By thursday, the day after the murder, the phone or whoever had it traveled a distance of about 60 miles. Who is with that cell phone was most likely the last person with melissa. Detectives also focused on the five hours the phone was stationary. Was the killer home in bed . We have to identify if melissa knows someone this this area. Does anything come up . We have no reason to believe anyone she is dating or anyone she knows lives there. Police asked everyone remotely involved in the case and the answer kept coming up no. By now, police had cleared the exhusband of melissas sister. Didnt have a connection to the area either. But when they asked debra if she knew anyone who lived around there, her jaw dropped. She did know someone. I do not think it was him. Cops are funny. They dont just take peoples words. They check them out. A new suspect close to debra, but who barely knew melissa. So why would he want to kill her . She couldnt connect the dots and put her in that garage. Absolutely not. I couldnt stand up. I was not able to stand on my feet. About eucrisa for mildtomoderate eczema . It can be used almost everywhere on almost everybody. 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Melissa lewiss cell phone was looking to be the key to unlock the mystery of what happened to her the night of the murder. The phone stayed with a person that we believe took melissa. Now they were focused on Miami Gardens where the phone was stationary for several hours after the murder. Police asked melissas best friend if she knew anyone who lived in that area. Debbie said my husband, tony who im going through a divorce with. She was dumb struck. Melissa had never done anything to him. Did tony know melissa. He met her a few times, but we were not social. She said she and tony were married for 17 years and had four children. They separated more than a year earlier. Tony had moved into a house in Miami Gardens with a friend. For 20 years, he worked for Florida East Coast rail ways hauling freight. He drove a train for a living. Police checked him out. Any priors . None. No priors. Detectives went to talk to tony and recorded the conversation. How well did you know this debras friend . I know her from her. Seen her a few times. Did you have any problems . Never. I dont think i ever spoke more than two wors to her. That wouldnt bother you if she did. I want to be away from my wife and have peace. Did you have anything to do with melissas death . No. What tone didnt know is before they spoke to him, they obtained a copy of the train route he drove and guess what. It matched the route traveled by melissas phone. Detectives confronted him with the evidence. Her phone after it was stolen went to the area of your house and stayed there overnight and came to work with you the next day and traveled north with the train because the train has gps. It was on the train. Okay . Unless someone else here knows melissa, its at your house and comes to work with you, you had the phone. Okay . Listen. I will be honest with you. This doesnt look good for you. But i dont even know her. They searched his house and car and train and never found melissas phone. There was still a missing motivational piece to the puzzle. Why in the world would tony kill someone he barely knew. Yet tony said something that opened a window into a private sid