Melinda's Message

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We have her last no whereabout her last messages. We
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know she was in distress, cried out for help.
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It's been almost three years since anyone has seen or
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heard from Melinda Lopez of Newport, Washington.
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Such a small town, you know, such a small town,
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so and a close smittown, somewhere where Melinda was born
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and raised.
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And now where family fears to their core. Also the
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possible location where she was killed.
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Melinda is gone.
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That was the voice of Melinda's mother, Yolanda. I interviewed
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her in December of twenty twenty. She was overcome with
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grief and worry, panic, knowing then that something was terribly wrong.
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I promised Mindseltham Londa, I'm not leaving without her.
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I'm not going to go without her.
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My name is Hayley Guntner. I'm an anchor a HQTV
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in Spokane, Washington. If you follow this series, you know
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my passion is covering cold cases, ensuring our community never forgets.
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This is the case of Melinda Lopez. No one has
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seed or heard from her since November of twenty twenty.
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Her disappearance is being investigated by the Ponderay County Sheriff's Office.
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Who says at this point the cases that a standstill.
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It's very frustrating when we followed a relief that's available
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to us and you know, none of it is leading
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us anywhere.
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That's why your family is hopeful through sharing her story,
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maybe that could change. Could you both say your full
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names and your relationship to the victim in this case.
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I'm Jolie Mary Lopez, I am Melinda's ant and Brittany.
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Britney Lopez and I'm Melinda's cousin.
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It's been fall Walmark three years without her. Do you
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think do either of you think there's any way she's
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still alive? No?
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Absolutely not.
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No.
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Do you think she was murdered?
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Yes?
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Absolutely, Yeah, she was murdered. Melinda would never run off
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and just disappear and not she wouldn't do that.
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Tell me, let's go back to November, mid November of
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twenty twenty, and she was in a place of of distress.
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Without getting too much into too much detail, we don't
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want to compromise the investigation. Take me through back in
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November when when you guys knew something was terribly wrong.
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Well, she had messaged one of her friends saying that
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if something happened to her that she did not do it.
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He had reported that, and then we knew that she
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was trying to get out of a place that she
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was living at due to them not getting along and
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she was.
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Worried about it.
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What was your last contact with Melinda and how was she?
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She was okay?
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She did seem I mean, she was living at that
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same place and it sounded like it wasn't She wasn't
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really too happy to be there, but she never said
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she was scared or anything.
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So she didn't start messaging people that she was scared
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until the final days before she vanished.
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Yeah, it sounds like a few weeks prior, there was
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a couple little issues with somebody that lived there and
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she started to get uncomfortable, and she had reached out
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to a couple of her friends and one of them
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was the friend she was going to move in with,
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and they had asked her if you know what was
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going on, and Steven, she just said that she didn't
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feel comfortable being there anymore.
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Friends have told Melinda's family she was preparing to move
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wanted to get her things when no one else was around.
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It was a move they fear. Melinda was never able
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to make. They say they've shared all of this with
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the Ponderrey County Sheriff's Office, who they say have looked
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into that property where she was last known to be.
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They tried to track her location in her last location
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on her phone did show she was at that same place,
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but that there was nothing they could find. They didn't
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find anything that was super substantial.
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They did. I think they had kidaver dogs out there.
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What was two or three times now three hundred acres
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is a lot.
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The family can't help but replay every last contact they
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had with Melinda. Julie, what about you? What was your
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last contact with her? And how did she seem?
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My last contact with her would have been we had
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a funeral for my sister and we were all, you know,
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the family being together, and she seemed really sad to
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you know, of course get her aunt's funeral, but she
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was really happy to see all the family. I gave
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her some money. She needed some money, so I gave
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her some money. But she she just seemed, you know,
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like Melinda always was.
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And what was Melinda like when when you talk about
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she was how she always was? For people who who
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don't know where paint a picture of Melinda for us,
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she was really outgoing.
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She's just I think she's a.
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Little spit fire.
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She was a little small, but she definitely she definitely
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had a big personality and she loved loved kids, all
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the nieces and nephews. That was probably one of her
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favorite things. I mean, that easiest way to put a
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smell on her face was the little kids. And she
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had always wanted to be a mom, So she definitely
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had a lot of maternal Yeah.
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Well, and that's probably why she was so, you know,
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a doting dog mom. If you will tell me about Echo,
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I only.
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Met him a couple times when he was younger, but
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she took him everywhere. That dog never ever ever was.
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Left alone, and Echo vanished right along with her. Yes,
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was he a protective dog.
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Yeah, I would say. I mean they spent I mean
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twenty four to seven together. There was time she would
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come to my house and she always had him, and
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she was she would teach them tricks and stuff. So
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you can tell they spent a lot of time together.
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What do you think this case needs to be solved.
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I think that.
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The things that people have came forward and said, I
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think they need to be investigated further and pushed and
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the names that were given from the very beginning. I
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think those people they didn't really there wasn't a lot
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of fight to get information out of them, and I think,
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you know, they need pushed. And one of the people
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that came forward first, she wasn't what she had said
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wasn't really taken very seriously. But it's always came back
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to that story, no matter the people we've talked to,
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and we've we've talked to people on our own, you know,
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without the detectives, and it's pretty much always rounded about
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back to that story. So I think that there needs
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to be a bigger investigation with that and not just
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brushed off.
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That story is that something may have happened that night,
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the night Melinda texted saying essentially, if something happened to her,
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it was no accident. This case has a lot of
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theories and a lot of rumors. The Pondey County Sheriff's
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Office certainly has their work cut out for them. Say
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your full name and your title, your connection to the case.
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Then Blakesley and I'm the sriff of Pondree County.
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Ponderrey County has a population of less than fifteen thousand approximately.
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The biggest city in it is Newport, where Melinda was
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last known to be living. It's a region that has
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its fair share of disturbing crime. Though, if you're familiar
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with this podcast, the suspicious death of Marty Lang was
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also from this area. So as the murder of Jason Fox,
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his case was solved and has been adjudicated. Sheriff Blakesley
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tells me he will it's nothing more than to solve
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Melinda's case too.
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We would absolutely love to find closure for the family
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and for obviously the rest of the public as well.
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Melinda's family, as you heard refers to her in the
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past tense, they do believe with everything they've got that
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she was the victim of a murder. The sheriff says,
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they need more evidence to officially reclassify it.
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Well, currently It'slica as a missing person, you know, tolicit
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as a homicide. We have to have a definite information
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that this shows us that she's deceased and so is
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she still a missing person at this point in time
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until we can develop that other information. We have it
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as a personal goal to try to solve these types
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of crimes or any crime and Yeah, it's just pretty
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frustrating that we're not a whole lot closer than when
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we started.
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You always hear nobody can just disappear, but I mean
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she did.
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She did. Like any case, there is evidence out there
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as a matter of finding it, and at this point
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in time, it really pulls back to people. People know things,
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and it's just people don't like to talk for a
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variety of reasons. They're fearful, they don't want to be
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a snitche they don't want to be involved or whatever,
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And it's just it's paying the right situation where somebody
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is willing to talk un till what they know that'll
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lead us to the closure that we need.
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So how do you reach those people? Melinda's cousin Brittany
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and aunt Jeline say their family is willing to try
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it all, including making a video flyer. I hope you'll
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watch this on our web story. We will link it
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for you here in the notes. You can also view
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it on YouTube by searching Melinda Lopez Foundation. We want
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to courtesy them for the clip you're about to hear.
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This is part of the actual video flyer, using a
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beloved photo of Melinda and her voice from an old video.
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Hello, my name is Melinda Lopez. You see I became
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a missing person in twenty twenty. No one has come
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forward to help solve my case, so I remain missing.
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My mom and my dad love me so much and
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miss me. Do that they created this foundation on behalf
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of my name with the hopes to close my case.
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If you have any information on my whereabouts, please please
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don't hesitate to come forward by submitting an anonymous tip.
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Again, the courtesy for that clip goes to the Melinda
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Lopez Foundation on YouTube. This was an effort from Landa
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and her husband and a friend, essentially using artificial intelligence
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to make this incredibly powerful statement. I've never seen anything
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like it in my years covering cold cases and crime. Again,
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I urge you to watch it for yourself. Brittany says,
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there's nothing those who love Melinda won't do to try
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to help your family. You guys have kind of put
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on detective hats, if you will, your yourselves, and knocked
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on doors and put up flyers and posters all over
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the city of Newport, and now your family has made
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that YouTube video. When you saw that, Brittany, did you
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get goosebumps?
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Yeah?
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It was really sad.
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It was sad to know that that was her voice
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and that's the only way we'll get to hear it
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again is through a video. I mean, it's an amazing thing,
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but it's also it's also sad. I think it puts
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a little more kind of puts a nail on the
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coffin that we won't be seeing her again.
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If someone out there has information and they're listening to
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our podcast and you could speak directly to them, Brittany
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will start with you. What would you say to them?
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I would say, just please come forward if we just
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want to find her and put her to rest. And
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I hope that you know, if the people that are
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involved that they hear this, think about it being your
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family just for a second, your daughter, your sister, and
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realize that pain is just it never goes away, especially
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as a mother, It's just it stays there forever, knowing
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that you're baby was out there and nobody knows what
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happened but probably wasn't good, and that she's out there
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waiting for somebody to, you know, bring her home.
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Joline, you had told me in one of our many
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interviews about this, that Yolanda, Melinda's mother has said, what
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do we do? Do we do we plan a funeral?
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Do we wait? I mean, we could be in this
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same agonizing state of limbo for another decade or who knows.
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What is it like having those conversations with your sister
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Melinda's mom.
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Oh, it's it's really hard to watch your sister look
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in your eyes with the hurt and the pain that
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she has, not knowing what happened to her daughter. She
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feels that whatever happened to her daughter was probably someone
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that we knew or she knew. It's I don't even
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know what to say to her anymore. Or her pain
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is so real, not knowing every day and knowing that
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her daughter went through what she went through alone, you know,
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and she might have had her dog with her, but
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you know, my sister would have definitely you know, took
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the hit for so to speak. You know, it's hard,
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it's really super hard to watch Yolanda every single day
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go through this and hear it in it.
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You could hear it in.
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Her voice, you could see it in her face, you know,
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and knowing that she comes and she asks me, she's like,
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what do we do?
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Do we.
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Do we have a memorial for her? Do we have
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a funeral. We can't have a funeral without a body.
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But let me tell you, we both we all hear
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Molinda saying when I think of that video, and to
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hear that video of her on the fire, I can
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that hearing her real voice is so chilling. But also
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I hear that voice saying, you guys, don't keep looking
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for me, keep looking for me, you know, bring me home,
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put me to rest. And that keeps us, you know,
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it gives us some energy to keep going forward and
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keep looking and putting the time into to finding her.
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Is she right under us somewhere? You know, we've we've
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had several search parties where we've had you know, fifty
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of us, all scattered all over the place on different rumors.
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And you know, of course we can only go to
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so many places because they're private property here, right, we're
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not the law. But just got to keep looking.
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She had in all the photos you guys have sent
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me of her, she had many different You could tell
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that she loved expressing herself with different hairstyles and looks.
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She had that long, gorgeous blonde hair. She had that
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adorable little like pixie cut. When she vanished what what
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did she look like.
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She had her short hair when she vanished and was
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more red. Yeah, and it was more red when she
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had vanished.
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And then she had three star tattoos over her chest.
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So those are kind of some important, you know, markings
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to keep uh watch out for, I guess yes.
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And she had wonderful like newer tattoos. She had the
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Batman symbol on her arm, like on her forearm. She
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loved that girl loved clothes, yes, and jewelry, but she
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always like an outfit you didn't think would look good like.
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She was totally expressional and more those different things, and
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she loved loved it. She was definitely more feminine than
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I think she put off, and she expressed that a
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lot with you know, when she got all dulled up
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and the way she dressed. She kind of had that
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heart exterior, but she still had that little girly nis enough.
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Melinda Lopez would be thirty seven years old today. She
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was about five four, one hundred and twenty tow one
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hundred and thirty pounds. She had short hair, blue eyes,
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and those tattoos are family mentioned. Sheriff Blakesley says tip
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lines are open, just.
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Calling the main number for the Sheriff's office five on
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nine four four seven nineteen hundred would probably be the
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best number. And then just let them know that you
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have information regarding this case and they will hook you
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up with the investigators that are continuing to follow up
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on everything that I is presented to us.
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You can find more information on the case on Facebook
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by searching Justice for Melinda. You can check out that
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YouTube page too. The foundation her folks started hopes to
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one day help other families of missing victims, a pain
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they can relate to all too well, a pain perhaps
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you could help ease by calling in that one.
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We're willing to follow up on anything that comes along.
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It is still an active case for us, and we
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still do hope for closure for the family and anybody
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else involved in it, and so anybody that does have
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information or can help us, we certainly look forward to
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chatting with them.
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Until the next one. I'm Haley Dunster.