FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS: A private investigator has made a staggering claim regarding the disappearance of an American teenager that has remained unsolved since late 1994. Melissa Witt was only 19 years old when she was last seen on December 1, 1994, in Arkansas following an argument with her mother. She was found dead after more than a month by a couple of hunters due to which authorities suspected convicted killer Larry Swearingen behind the crime. However, Swearingen maintained his innocence until his dying day before he was executed by lethal injection in August 2019.
Now, in an interview with The Sun, LaDonna Humphrey, a private detective who has spent almost eight years of her life to Witt's murder, said she discovered that an initial officer probe done by Fort Smith Police Department critically damaged the case. What's more shocking is the fact that Humphrey claimed that the police did not treat Witt as a missing person when she disappeared, because she was over 18.
Who is Melissa Witt?
Melissa Witt was an ambitious and hardworking student from Fort Smith, Arkansas who suddenly went missing on December 1, 1994, after a row with her mother over money. Six weeks later on January 13, 1995, her naked body was found by two hunters in the Ozark National Forest, almost 45 miles away from her home. She was reportedly strangled and her body was placed by a headstone-shaped rock, but her clothes and belongings were never found.
Unfortunately, no one has ever been charged with her kidnapping and murder despite a huge campaign to find out who killed Witt. A $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of her murderer is still in place.
Larry Swearingen's chilling last words
Larry Swearingen, who was found guilty of the abduction, rape, and murder of another 19-year-old girl, Melissa Trotter, in Conroe, Texas, in 1998 was arrested by the police as they suspected him to be behind Witt's murder as well. But Larry would continue to protest his innocence until his dying day when he was executed by lethal injection in August 2019. His last words were, "Lord forgive them. They don't know what they are doing."
What did LaDonna Humphrey say?
According to the investigator, following an argument with her mother, Witt reportedly stormed out of the house and went to class at her local college where she was studying to be a dental hygienist. She then had lunch with a friend at a local mall before going to work. Later, she returned home and found a note from her mother who apologized for the altercation and invited her out to a nearby bowling alley where she would get her food.
"We know that Melissa saw the note, we know that she went to the bowling alley, but she never made it inside," Humphrey said. "When Melissa didn't come home that night, her mom was suspicious because this wasn't like her, and so she was out searching for her by 3am", she continued. "This was the 90s, we saw things so much differently then. There had never been a crime like this that had happened in Fort Smith."
The investigator added, "Melissa's mom called the police the next morning, and I think what was really detrimental to the case was when the patrolman came out and asked her if there had been an argument. That really changed his attitude about what the case could be. And so, initially, Melissa's case was just set aside. The patrolman assumed that Melissa had just run away."
Witt's loved ones launched a major flier campaign
The Major Crimes Unit (MCU) in Fort Smith got involved after the teen's close ones launched a major flier campaign. Authorities later discovered Witt's car and also found blood stains in the parking lot of the bowling alley alongside a crushed earring belonging to Witt. However, it was the patrolman who made the pivotal mistake that gave her killer to get off scot-free.
Humphrey said, "There was a delay in informing the public that there was a girl who had been kidnapped. That was incredibly detrimental for the case and put all of us a couple of days behind the game." Despite the slow pace of the investigation, Humphrey is sympathetic to the patrolman and the way he dealt with the incident. "In the US, it's not illegal to go missing over the age of 18," she said. "There was no car at the time, nothing that pointed to a secondary crime scene." She has penned two books on Melissa's case, 'The Girl I Never Knew,' and 'Strangled.'
Humphrey said that Witt's case remained with her because "She was everybody's girl." She added, "Many of us who grew up in the area know about the Witt case and we want to see it solved."
