Posted on 08/30/2004 3:21:48 PM PDT by HawkeyeLonewolf
A DeKalb County grand jury indicted Colvin "Butch" Hinton III on a charge of murdering Emory University student Shannon Melendi, 11Alive News first reported Monday.
The indictment, announced at an afternoon news conference in which the victim's father Luis attended, came down more than 10 years after the disappearance of Shannon Melendi. Her body has never been found.
Hinton is in the custody of DeKalb County authorities.
Melendi was 19 at the time she vanished from a convenience store next to a DeKalb County softball field, where she worked part time and where Hinton coached a church women's softball team.
Hinton had been scrutinized by authorities since the March 26, 1994 disappearance, but he had not been charged in that case until today.
He recently finished serving a federal prison term, after being convicted of trying to burn his house down to collect $185,000 in insurance money.
Hinton was never officially named a suspect in Melendi's disappearance, but police and FBI agents repeatedly searched his Clayton County home and the area behind it after the disappearance. Investigators spent nearly a week digging behind it and a neighbor's back yard in 1995.
Hinton moved with his wife from that house in Rex to Morrow after the fire, which he had claimed was caused by a faulty vacuum cleaner.
Former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan, who investigated the case, commented on the indictment to 11Alive's Kay Flowers.
"We have investigated this very thoroughly. There was a lot of what I thought was very good circumstantial evidence but not enough evidence to get a conviction at a time when I was leaving," Morgan said.
Morgan said he passed on the information to the county's current District Attorney, Jeffrey Brickman.
"I turned that information over Mr. Brickman when I left office and he, too, is a very thorough prosecutor, and left him with the hope that this information was viable and could bring resolution to this case for Shannon Melendi's family."
Melendi left the Softball Country Club to get a soda at the Citgo station nearby, but never returned. Her car, unlocked with the keys in the ignition, remained at the store.
Melendi majored in Spanish at Emory and had planned to go to law school. She graduated from Southwest Senior High School, where she was class president and an honor student.
Hope if he is the one, they can nail him for it.
"Hope if he is the one, they can nail him for it."
Me too, they must feel pretty sure, if they've indicted him. Why do they think this man killed her?
Stories like this scare the heck out of me. It would be nice if all the bad people were in the big city, or in the dark of night, or something. But they are not, they can be anywhere at anytime.
I had a cousin who "disappeared" and was never found, so I know these things don't just happen to "other people".
They've always suspected this guy. Now they have physical evidence, according to the DA.
Shannon is from Miami, her family is freinds with my family. Her dad is a photographer.
She was a very beautiful young lady.
Oh man - I remember all that. Friend of mine used to play on softball leagues at the complex she worked at.
It would be nice if her body was found and her family was able to have a proper burial/closure.
I just joined here after reading on this site and also several others while doing research... A family member of mine is friends with the suspect - there is no new evidence in the case - they never proved he set fire to his home (he used a shady contractor and got the shaft since using him made him under suspicion of fraud) and as for his being a sexual predator - this makes me sick.. The guy was 16, had a 14 year old girlfriend and there was no real "kidnap" or "rape" involved - two kids making a mistake - happens everyday around the world - he certainly wasn't the first to use bad judgement...
Just for the record - I am not attesting to his innocence or guilt here, I am just saying I have heard both sides of the story - too much to go into here - and I think people should not jump the gun on thinking someone is guilty just because there is a suspicion or just because there is an indictment (remember - innocent until proven guilty)or the media makes them sound guilty as heck.. I PERSONALLY know people who have been indicted on cases where they were totally innocent ( just ONE example - a family member was arrested for child abandonment - spent two nights in jail only to have the case dropped because it was proven her ex-husband actually kidnapped the kids and filed false charges to try and obtain emergency custody of the kids) and later exonerated, but their records and reputations are tarnished forever...
Pray for the family of Shannon Melendi and pray that if that guy is convicted - that he is the guilty party and that there isn't a killer running loose... He weasn't the last one seen with her - she was seen at a convenience store payphone with two men - her ring was found in the phone booth and her keys int he ignition.. Why would he follow her from the field, abduct her from a store and then return to the games later? Makes no sense to me...
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