On December 1, 1994, in a small city known as Fort Smith in Arkansas, 19-year-old Melissa Witt modified out of her work garments and into causal denims and a high earlier than driving to the native Bowling World. Her mother Mary Ann was enjoying in a league recreation and had left her a observe providing to purchase her a burger. Melissa did arrive at Bowling World that night, however she by no means made it inside.
Forty-five days later, on January 13, 1995, LaDonna Humphrey was 21-years-old and a self-confessed true crime addict. Driving alongside the freeway between Fayetteville and Fort Smith she had the radio enjoying. It was there she heard the announcement {that a} feminine physique had been discovered.
On a hidden service street, fifty-six miles away within the Ozark Nationwide Forest, two animal trappers had stumbled throughout the physique that morning. That they had been in the identical spot lower than 24 hours earlier and the physique wasn’t there then. They’d instantly known as the Franklin County Sheriff’s Division to report what they’d discovered.
The decomposed physique of Melissa Witt confirmed everyone’s worst fears. Melissa had been kidnapped and brutally murdered by somebody who had escaped unseen and unnoticed. The face of her killer was a thriller. A hooded black shadow that nobody might establish. For LaDonna, this was a picture that may fill her goals as her sudden reference to Melissa would captivate her days and her life. Simply two years aside in age, as LaDonna grew older, studied Journalism on the College of Arkansas, married, and began a household, Melissa didn’t.
Melissa’s mother, Mary Ann Witt, had Melissa when she was in her 40s. She was the sunshine of her life. She died in 2011 aged 75 nonetheless by no means understanding who killed her daughter or why. Her grave is correct subsequent to Melissa’s at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Fort Smith.
“I walked forward. Alone. I bear in mind watching my steps. My ideas have been tainted with apprehension and despair. My jumbled ideas halted as quickly as I spotted I used to be standing proper in entrance of that rock—the very place the place 19-year-old Melissa confronted down the monster that killed her.”
– LaDonna Humphrey
LaDonna Humphrey has by no means met Melissa. She wasn’t a buddy at Westark Group Faculty or a colleague on the dental observe the place she labored as a dental assistant. She wasn’t a relative. Melissa Witt is the woman that LaDonna by no means knew in particular person when she was alive. However she is the particular person in the present day that in all probability is aware of Melissa in addition to anybody might since her devastating abduction and homicide.
There may be one sentence that drives LaDonna. One set of phrases that maintain her pushing ahead regardless of the challenges, the scares, the disappointments, and the defeats. Melissa Ann Witt deserves justice. That’s what The Girl I Never Knew is all about.
Nobody can say her pursuit of justice has not had a private impact on her. Her sleep is interrupted. LaDonna takes us inside these goals simply as vividly as she describes the scenes she witnesses in searching down Melissa’s killer. Her waking hours are tormented with unanswered questions. All the pieces is touched by the lifetime of Melissa and the brutality and cruelty of her premature loss of life.
Studying Melissa’s diary and her day by day entries about her life, LaDonna attracts parallels together with her personal diary entries on those self same days. It’s a placing swap between two younger ladies each enthusiastic about life and exploring the world round them. One nonetheless would have their life snatched away after enduring terror and a determined battle to outlive. The opposite would go on to research that homicide and keep it up a protracted battle for justice that’s removed from over.
“She painted an attractive self-portrait in her diary of a form, naïve, harmless, and fun-loving younger lady targeted on a profitable future.” LaDonna writes of the phrases she slowly reads in Melissa’s diary. They spotlight all of the extra how a lot was taken from Melissa Witt.
There may be an concept that Melissa knew her killer. That her killer’s title is probably going written on these pages by Melissa’s personal hand having no concept the evil that was coming to her from this very particular person. “I’ll at all times see Melissa’s diary as sacred phrases that completely seize the crux of who she was: a pure harmless soul who deserves justice.” LaDonna writes.
The Woman I By no means Knew is a mild but highly effective stroll by means of the complicated snaking path that LaDonna Humphrey has traveled in her decided quest to seek out the solutions for Melissa Witt. The challenges, frustrations, and brutal realities of chilly case investigation are laid naked. False leads and conspiracy theories swirl uncontrollably the extra public the case is, however all leads must be adopted. All attainable new clues or proof wants chased, checked, and verified.
So many hours have been poured into the hunt for Melissa’s assassin. Many violent serial offenders have been interviewed, written to, and corresponded with to attempt to decide in the event that they have been the final face Melissa noticed earlier than she took her final breath. There are jail inmates with serial crimes behind them. A mysterious man hiding behind a username and a deeply disturbing fetish underground world who managed to uncover LaDonna’s actual title. Prodding and probing the embers of darkness and depravity within the hunt for a killer is usually a harmful world. LaDonna is undeterred and refuses to again away.
There was assist and help alongside the way in which. The connection LaDonna has developed with Jay C Rider who was Captain of the Main Crimes Unit and former Fort Smith Detective Chris Boyd, showcases deep layers of respect and a mutual grit, willpower, and sole goal to seek out justice for Melissa irrespective of how lengthy it takes.
“I would like the killer to know that he shouldn’t really feel protected. Somebody is aware of who he’s and what he did. Finally, we’ll knock at his door.”
– Former Fort Smith Detective Chris Boyd
The chapters are quick but gripping and fascinating. Every ending attracts you additional in, feeding your have to know what occurred subsequent on this journey. Throughout the first few pages, the care and a spotlight given to Melissa Witt sparks a passion for this younger lady. An attractive soul with goals and plans for her future who had a lot brutally snatched away from her.
LaDonna’s drive to seek out the reality is infectious. As every web page turns, there’s a deeper empathy for Melissa. For the horror she should have endured, the worry in these final moments of her life. All comes by means of in LaDonna’s writing grounding this guide in honesty and actuality.
One thread that quietly runs by means of the chapters of The Woman I By no means Knew is a person on the sidelines of the investigation. An everyday caller to LaDonna to debate the case. He’s interested by element and eager to know developments. He’s a person who knew Melissa Witt. Is he Melissa’s killer?
LaDonna’s personal phrases written on to the killer are heavy with the emotion she carries and the willpower she has for Melissa. She was unmistakably an harmless stunning younger lady who ought to have had the prospect to reside her life. She deserves justice.
“I proceed an exhaustive seek for you. You’re a man that carries evil in his coronary heart – a curse that permeates each ounce of your being. The one witnesses to your crime have been the white oak bushes and shortleaf pine that trembled and swayed as Melissa’s terrified screams echoed by means of their leaves and into the darkish abyss of the forest. I vowed to seek out you. And I’ll.”
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The Girl I Never Knew: Who Killed Melissa Witt? by LaDonna Humphrey
Genius Ebook Publishing, 8 April 2022, Paperback and Kindle, 199 Pages.
“For over twenty years the id of Melissa Witt’s assassin has been hidden among the many dense bushes and thorny undergrowth rooted deeply within the uneven floor of a distant mountaintop within the Ozark Nationwide Forest. Decided to seek out solutions, LaDonna Humphrey has spent the previous seven years attempting to find Melissa’s killer. Her investigation, each thrilling and unpredictable, has led her on a journey like no different. The Woman I By no means Knew is an edge-of-your-seat account of LaDonna Humphrey’s passionate battle for justice within the decades-old homicide case of a woman she by no means met in particular person. Her unstoppable quest for the reality has gained the eye of some extremely harmful folks, a few of whom want to maintain Melissa’s homicide a thriller without end.”
In 2015 LaDonna Humphrey put a group collectively to provide a documentary concerning the abduction and homicide of Melissa Witt. Watch the trailer beneath.
For extra details about the case, go to LaDonna’s Facebook Page Who Killed Missy Witt?
You probably have any details about the kidnapping and homicide of Melissa Witt, please electronic mail [email protected]
You probably have details about the homicide of Melissa Witt, please name 1-800-440-1922 or go to whokilledmissywitt.com.
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