Melanie Renee Metheny

July 26, 2009

Charleston, the capital of West Virginia, is nestled into the west side of the Appalachian Mountains affording the residents a milder winter.  The city proudly traces its history all the way back to the Revolutionary War, and its legacy sister industries, of salt and coal mining, still sustain much of the population.  It boasts a full range of cultural amenities for its citizens to enjoy including, but not limited to, Symphony Orchestras, Ballet, Museums, Theater, and a Junior Theater for their children.  With a population of 300,000 plus, the metro area of Charleston has a number of bedroom communities, including Campbells Creek.

On Wednesday, July 19, 2006, Jared David left his home in the suburb of Campbells Creek, and headed off to work at 7:00 a.m.  When he left, Melanie Metheny, his twenty-one-years-old girlfriend of five months, was still getting herself and her children ready for the day.

In the past, Melanie’s life was full of hardships and disappointments, making her even more determined to provide a better life for her children.  Everything she hoped for was finally starting to happen.  She and Jared were planning to marry, they were saving money for a bigger house to live in, she had agreed to be the new face on billboards across West Virginia for the West Virginia Adult Basic Education Program, and her career as a nurse was within reach.

Melanie was excited about the day ahead.  As she buckled her one-year-old Hannah, two-years-old Nathan, and four-years-old Ryan into their car seats, Melanie thought about the things she needed to accomplish that day, and the bright future that lay ahead.  She would drop the children off at Country Kids Daycare in Belle, W. V., and pick up transcripts of her courses from Garnet Career Center.  It would not be long before she could take the entrance exams for the West Virginia State University Nursing program.

The direct route to the daycare is to take U.S. Route 60.  The highway hugs the Kanawha River providing a glimpse, or two, of a coal barge in its heavily polluted waters.  The river snaked its way, first left and then right, on the way to the riverfront city of Belle.  Melanie Renee Metheny and her three children arrived at the Country Kids Daycare between 7:40 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.  She dropped them off at the daycare centers entrance, and the three children trotted inside.  No one at the daycare remembers seeing Melanie on that Wednesday morning.

As excited as she was about enrolling at University, everyone assumes Melanie headed directly for the Garnet Career Center, in Charleston, to pick up her transcripts.  It is 15.5 miles from the daycare to Garnet Career Center.  However, Melanie Metheny has not shown up to collect her transcipts.

Melanie’s minivan had some minor damages.  It was stolen and missing for nearly a month.  Weeks ago, they found the damaged minivan in Ravenswood.  Melanie knew the juvenile who stole her Chevy minivan.  Only a week had passed since she had an altercation with the juvenile.  According to Jared Davis, the boy picked up a rock, when Melanie turned to walk away.  A friend, who was with Melanie, shouted out and the youth dropped the rock.  Those close to Melanie say she was still upset about the encounter.

At 9:09 a.m., Melanie made a cell phone call to Wreck-A-Mended Paint & Body to confirm an appointment for repairs on her van, and to inquire about an insurance check to cover the repairs.  Kanawha Sheriff Detective R. A. Lane is not certain it was Melanie, who made that call.

Then a second call from her cell phone connected at 9:30 a.m.  This time the call was to Melanie’s voice mailbox. That was the last activity on the call log.

Jared Davis said Melanie usually called him at noon, not hearing from her, he called her cell phone, but she did not answer.

The 5′3″ Melanie Renee Metheny had vanished.  Hours passed before anyone realized she was missing.

Days later a witness recalled an event on the same afternoon Melanie vanished.  The witness, described only as someone who knew Melanie, reported seeing a Red SUV on the West Side, a community within Charleston.  The witness reported seeing a woman resembling Melanie, struggling inside the SUV and heard her yelling, “What about my babies?”  The witness said she appeared to be trying to free herself.  Kanawha Sheriff’s Detective R. A. Lane said they have not been able to locate the Sport Utility Vehicle.

At 6:00 p.m., an employee at the Country Kids Daycare called Donna Harper, Grandmother of Nathan and Hannah, because Melanie failed to pick up the three children.  Donna Harper rushed over to the daycare and picked up the children.  She knew immediately something was wrong.  Donna had never known Melanie to be anything but a responsible and caring mother to the children.

Sandra Winnings, Melanie’s Grandmother, filed a missing person report that evening.

According to Detective Lane, on July 21, two days after Melanie disappeared, they received tips which prompted them to send out rescue crews and a K-9 unit.  They ardently searched Spring Fork Drive, in the Witcher Creek area.  Nothing from that search led to Melanie.

July 23, 2006, tips came in leading to the location of Melanie’s minivan.  Residents in the West Side (a community within Charleston) neighborhood said the 1998 gold and tan Chevrolet Ventrua minivan, parked at the corner of Wyoming Street and Beuhring Avenue, had been there since, at least, 2:00 p.m. the afternoon Melanie vanished.  This Charleston neighborhood, known for its drug activity, immediately raised questions about Melanie and drugs as a possible reason for her menivan being there.  Melanie only used drugs in a social setting; she did not have any connection to durg activites.

The search of the locked Chevy Minivan yielded several documents and phone numbers, including a handwritten note and a business card, found on the front seat.  The note had a St. Albans phone number and the handwritten words, “3 bedroom, 2 bath, 15,000″, on it.  The business card belonged to a Belle police officer.  Belle Police Chief R. J. Sizemore related the card to Melanie filing a report, not long before she disappeared.  The incident involved a woman approaching Melanie about speeding through their neighborhood.  They argued, and that is when the woman threatened to beat Melanie up.  Melanie’s cell phone and purse are still missing.  Investigators were not able to lift any fingerprints from the vehicle.

Jared Davis told investigators he knew people in the West Side, but not in that area.  He did not think Melanie knew anyone there, and that she would not go into that area without him.

After three years together Matt Harper, father of Nathan and Hannah, had broken up with Melanie eight months before she vanished.  He could not recall Melanie going to West Side to visit anyone.  He and James Metheny, Melanie’s brother, drove the streets of the West Side looking for her until 3:30 a.m.  They found a few peole who said they saw a woman matching Melanie’s description, but when followed up by law enforcement, it led nowhere.

The following day, Donna Harper covered the West Side in flyers, speaking to everyone along the way.

The family and friends of Melanie Renee Metheny set up a website.  On that website, there is mention of a crisis in the days preceding her disappearance.  Detective Lane had no information that would confirm a crisis in her life at that time.  Rumors were circulating that Melanie was in the West Side neighborhood because she owed $300.00, to a drug dealer.  He was aware of the rumors and commented he did not believe she owed anyone a large sum of money.  He called it, “asinine”, when reminded of the $300.00 rumor and knowing her untouched savings were more than adaquate to cover a problem like that.

Everyone seemed to agree, Melanie only traveled into Charleston to attend classes.  The junction of Beuhring and Wyoming Street was an odd place to find her parked minivan.

July 28, 2006, a logger discovered the nude body, of a 5′8″ white woman with long dark hair, in a rural area of Eastern Jackson County.  She was wearing only a thin gold necklace and her pink top was nearby.  There were no missing persons reported in Jackson County, causing many to speculate it might be Melanie.  A detective went to Jackson County from Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department to assist in investigating the murder.  A few days later, Jackson County Sheriff Michael Bright announced they were 99% positive it was not Melanie.  This became a new missing person case

By July 30, 2006, Kanawha County Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Stover indicated the leads and tips in the Metheny case have not led to anything significant.  The Metheny family has offered a reward for information on the disappearance.

June 8, 2007, Kanawha County Lt. Sean Crosier announced they are extremely encouraged by new information that has just surfaced in the case of Melanie Metheny.  It was information from one of the famly members who have been trying to track down clues.  They are hoping for a positive resolution in the case.  Detective are following up and conducting interviews, but would not say more.

July 19, 2007, marks the first anniversay of Melanie Renee Metheny’s disappearance.

November 2007, Donna Harper’s mother passed away.  Nathan and Hannah were old enough to realize her passing and missed her.  Little Nathan noticed how sad his Grandmother Donna was and said, “Well, Mamaw, I already lost my Mommy.”

March 13, 2008, Kanawha County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Johnny Rutherford announced the sighting of a woman matching Melanie’s description in South Carolina.  They have sent a detective to South Carolina and are working with officials there.  In the tight-lipped fashion of investigators, they indicated they had not substaniated the lead.  They continue to follow up all leads in the case.

July 19, 2008, marks the second anniversary of the disappearance of Melanie Renee Metheny.

The leads in the case seem to have dried up, but Melanie is still out there, and she needs to come home.

July 19, 2009, Melanie Renee Metheny is still missing.  It is the thrid anniversay of the day she vanished.

Melanie loved her children, and more than anything, she wanted to be with them.  On March 13, 2006, Melanie wrote an essay titled, ‘The Best Things In My Life’.  It is an out-pouring of heart-felt warmth for her children.  In the essay, she writes about each of her children with sweetness and tenderness.  The last paragraph puts a lump in my throat, and I do not think she would mind sharing it here:

‘Being a single mom is not easy at all but watching my kids grow up and watching them learn new things for the first time is the greatest feeling I’ve ever had.  I would not change them for the world and I don’t know where I’d be right now if I didn’t have them but I know my life wouldn’t have as much meaning.’

Melanie Renee Metheny is a lovely sweet and gentle person.  She quietly dedicated herself to her children, her family, and to making sure her children would have a better chance at life.  Melanie dreamed of being a nurse and taking care of others.  She cared for others, outwardly.  Even though, she and Matt Harper had broken up, she brought his children over to visit him, and their Grandparents, every other weekend.  She worked hard on making it into Nursing.

She is missed and needed and loved, by her brothers James and Michael, by her step Mom Donna, by her cousins Aaron Chaz and Allison, by her Aunt Lisa Wellington, by her Father Jimmy Metheny, by her Uncle Rocky Metheny, by her Mother Debi Metheny, by her Grandmother Sandra Winnings, by her son Ryan (now 7), by her son Nathan (now 5), by her daughter Hannah (now 4), and by all her friends and the people of her community.

Donna Harper has had custody of Hannah and Nathan since picking up the children from the daycare center. Melanie’s son, Ryan, continues to live with his paternal Grandparents since the disappearance of his mother.

The Grandmother of Melanie, Sandra Winnings, had dedicated herself to finding the granddaughter she helped raise.  She dedicated a website to Melanie.  Sandra begs for any leads, of any kind, reminding everyone they can choose to remain anonymous.

The family raised a $5,000.00 reward for information on Melanie Renee Metheny.  If you have information, any at all, please contact them or the Kanawha County Police Department at the number listed below.

Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office

Phone: (304) 357-0169

Investigative Case #: 71924

Melanie Renee Metheny

Date of Birth: June 21, 1985

Date Missing: July 19, 2006

Missing from: Belle, West Virginia, U.S.A.

Age at disappearance: 21

Age today: 24

Gender: Female

Race: White

Height: 5′3″

Weight: 100 lbs

Hair color: Blonde

Eye color: Brown

Complexion: Light

Identifying characteristics:  Pierced ears, metal pins and surgical scar on left ankle, cesarean scar, small birthmark on chin, a tooth growing behind the other on the right side.

For additinoal information: Help Find The Missing

References:

National Center for MIssing Adults

Help Find Melanie Renee Metheny

Texas EquuSearch

America’s Most Wanted

Find Melanie guestbook

Melanie Metheny

Charley Project

Project Jason

Sunday Gazette mail

WTAP

Daily Mail

State Journal

WCHSTV

WV Gazette

WSAZ

Wikipedia

Written by Linda Johnson · Filed Under Cold Cases, Melanie Renee Metheny, Missing Women 

Comments

20 Responses to “Melanie Renee Metheny”

  1. Sandra Metheny on July 27th, 2009 12:58 am

    I want my granddaughter back…we need help please someone help us bring her home there is no such thing as dissappearing off the face of the earth someone knows and we want help

  2. Bill Mann on July 27th, 2009 9:30 pm

    Where did you get the information that no one saw Melanie at the Day care Center the morning she went missing? Melanie’s grandmother and I spoke with an administrator of the center in November 2006, and the distinct impression was given that she did enter the center, hugged her kids, etc. However, we have never been able to see the actual sign-in…like it’s a state secret.

    This makes one wonder if indeed she did enter the center. Her movements that morning, up until she dropped off the kids have been confirmed by two eye witnesses, with who we spoke on third anniversary day. She first went to Dry Branch to drop of her male friend’s daughter, then to Midland avenue, why we do not know, then to a 7-11 in Belle to buy “Bug Juices” for her two youngest, and then to the Center.

    We are beginning to doubt that she had her phone that morning, and the body shop employee could not say it was Melanie’s voice on the phone. If she did not have her phone, she WAS in crisis and she would not have wanted to be alone. We assume she went to Midland Avenue with the kids to pick up a friend or family member to be with her that day.

    One of those Midland Avenue friends and family members has since fled the state and has never been carefully interrogated by police investigators. The versions given to family interviewers are replete with contradictions and flat falsehoods.

    The Garnet Center story is a lame cover for what Melanie really had to do that day. Her transcripts were already at WVSU, a phone call to the registrar’s office would have established that fact. She was supposed to show up some time in July for freshman orientation. She never did, of course. Unfortunately, Melanie’s educational plans had been short circuited by pressures from those who had different agendas for her.

    Melanie did know how to get to West Side Charleston and as far as Dunbar and Institute. She had been there many times for her ACT prep classes before and since meeting her last male companion..

    Melanie had been introduced to drugs after her breakup with the father of her youngest two children. She was vulnerable, alone with two kids, with only child support and family resources to live on. She was introduced to a user by two users and then schooled in how to make money by running errands or “muling” for various male figures.

    On the day she disappeared she was confused and afraid of whatever real errand she had been commanded to do. Things found in her van were “arranged” not by Melanie, but by her abductors trying to leave as many threads/scenarios as possible (undercover agent, “chucking” it all, sold into slavery, etc)

    One of her acquaintances actually admitted to giving her an eight ball of cocaine for her 21st birthday, just 3 weeks before she disappeared. That’s a lot of coke, enough to sell enough to crack. She supposedly had an enormous drug debt, and $300 is not enormous.

    I find it hard to believe that the police could not find the red Ford Explorer from which Melanie’s voice was distinctly heard crying out for help the evening she disappeared. Partial plate numbers were provided.

    Ask the police just when they really found her van. There is a public date and there is a non-public date.

    Melanie’s case needs to be given to the FBI.

  3. Bill Mann on July 27th, 2009 9:36 pm

    Linda, please contact me, I would like to send you the photo journalism that Melanie’s grandmother and I developed on the third anniversary day, July 19, 2009. I couldn’t find an e-mail address here.

  4. Linda Johnson on July 28th, 2009 1:15 pm

    Bill Mann, I have sent you an email.

  5. sandra Metheny on July 28th, 2009 3:26 pm

    i want to talk to all of u i want in on all the emails imalady33461@hotmail.com if u want infromation i’m the one u wanna talk 2

  6. sandra Metheny on July 28th, 2009 3:28 pm

    lets go people gotta get this done i been out all day again I.m still here Melanie I’ll never stop

  7. Linda Johnson on July 28th, 2009 4:24 pm

    Sandra, I emailed you, the first time on July 27th.
    I just forwarded, to you, the email I sent Bill.

  8. sandra Metheny on July 29th, 2009 2:17 am

    Matt harper never broke up with Melanie she was always the one breaking up with him and i’d like to know exactly when Donna got custody of the kids ( LIE )THERE ARE A COUPLE THINGS ON HERE WRONG LETS GET IT STRAGHTENED UP!!!!!!!!!! TY sANDRA mETHENY

  9. sandra Metheny on July 30th, 2009 3:29 pm

    ok people i;m still here looking for Melanie Metheny speak your mind cuz im gonna speak mine….what do u know …where did u hear it……and most imporant where is my GRANDDAUGHTER

  10. sandra Metheny on August 1st, 2009 6:06 am

    I LOVE YOU MELANIE…………..foing to put up more flyers today

  11. sandra Metheny on August 1st, 2009 6:07 am

    I LOVE YOU MELANIE…………..going to put up more flyers today

  12. W Mann on August 1st, 2009 4:47 pm

    Linda, is this where you might post the documents I e-mailed you? I am pretty much an internet dummy so help me if there is another site. The latest according to the one who has worked the hardest is being told that KC(WV) detectives know who but can’t prove a thing. That really seems odd, but it is the latest…from last week. Keep up the good work, Sandra and Leisa are so happy you found them or was it vice versa!

  13. W Mann on August 1st, 2009 5:03 pm

    Linda! I just made the connection between this page and your fantastic site which requires a sign-in. I visited the larger site at least a year ago as I was researching the very complete set of articles you have stacked together..what a precious resource..including the Harki articles from the last time we were able to rattle the media pages cages just a bit…what about the Eyewitness News claim as to having uncovered evidence which police told them not to publish..what is the date of that uncovering? I couldn’t tell from the posting….I am working on another page, which was another sighting (at least of her vehicle on D Day. Thank you again for your attention to Melanie.

  14. WMann on August 2nd, 2009 11:34 am

    Here is a linked Google sattelite map for you to visualize what we know and have shared about July 19th three years ago…I will try to google mail it to you, too…

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1+oregon+ave&vps=17&jsv=169c&sll=38.378134,-81.689014&sspn=0.014971,0.027595&gl=us&num=10&iwloc=A&iwstate1=saveplace

  15. WMann on August 2nd, 2009 11:37 am

    nope, wrong one

  16. Linda Johnson on August 2nd, 2009 11:40 am

    Bill,
    As much as I am proud of this site, I am not the site owner.

    After gathering all the information you and the family have put together, the images you have provided, along with news updates on the case, I intend to create a blog about it, here.

    Please do join in the conversation in the forum! You, Sandra, and Lesia will be Welcomed with open arms!

    Melanie needs to come home!

  17. sandra Metheny on August 2nd, 2009 1:15 pm

    PLEASE COME HOME MY PRECIOUS MELANIE

  18. sandra Metheny on August 2nd, 2009 1:15 pm

    IM coming get ready

  19. Mary C. on August 5th, 2009 7:06 am

    Sending love and light to Melanie and her family. May angels surround you.

  20. Debi on August 8th, 2009 12:06 pm

    Linda,

    This is Melanie’s mother. Please contact me as soon as possible.

    Thank you,
    Debi

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