The Disappearance of Melanie Melanson (Massachusetts)

In a small New England city, a teenager disappeared after a night in the woods, and almost immediately the story of what happened fractured. The last people known to be with her gave conflicting accounts. Her family believed the investigation lost precious time, and as the years passed, searches kept returning to the same narrow stretch of land, the same handful of names, and the same possibility that someone had been carrying the truth all along. After decades of searches, whispers, and shifting loyalties, someone still knows where to find her, and it's time to speak up. I'm Kylie Lo, and this is the case of Melanie Melanson, Undark Down East. More than 36 years after Melanie Melanson disappeared, her cousin, Billy Sue Hutchins, still remembers being 9 years old in the back of her parents' car, and the drive on that Saturday afternoon in late October of 1989. I have that vivid memory of driving down Montfell Ave, and that's one of the bigger memories I have when I was younger. That was probably the first memory I have of Melanie Messing was that day. Out beyond Montfell Ave in Wuburn, Massachusetts, in the woods along the river, was the place Melanie was last seen. At that point, the family didn't yet know that they would spend the next 3+ decades driving the same roads, searching those same woods, and advocating for their missing loved one. It all started on Friday, October 27, 1989. After school that afternoon, 14 year old Melanie Melanson and her friend Laurie heard about a party going down later that night. It would be at a known teenage hangout spot in a wooded area near the industrial and commercial properties clustered around Montfell Ave, Washington Street, and Interstate 93, out behind a dead end street called "Rand Drive" along the Aburjana River. According to the account Billy Sue has pieced together, Laurie didn't want to go to the party. Melanie did. The plan came together like this, Melanie told her grandmother who she was living with at the time that she would be spending the night at Laurie's house right next door. Melanie would get a ride from an older teenager who had a car, and then return to Laurie's house after the party. She would throw rocks at Laurie's window to be let inside without waking anyone else up. I know I'm talking to at least a few elder millennials here, and we know this maneuver all too well. You say you're spending the night somewhere, you hope no one calls to verify, and then you sneak off to do things with your friends that the adults in your life may or may not approve of. In a small New England town especially, it was a deception that didn't feel too risky. This wasn't a town where you were afraid to walk down the street at night where you lock your doors, it wasn't something that we were worried about. The next morning, Melanie's grandmother went looking for her. That's when Laurie told her Melanie never showed up. In hours, Melanie's aunt Mary Ann began trying to reconstruct the previous night. She contacted people who had been at the party, and learned that Melanie was last seen with two teenage boys, James Tresca and Eugene Bertini. What follows is her account of the conversations she says she personally had that Saturday morning. I have not independently verified each exchange through police records, and neither James Jimmy Tresca nor Eugene Jean Bertini responded to my requests for comment. I want you to hear the following sequence from Mary Ann directly. She says she first went to the Wuburn Police Department, where she spoke with Officer Tony Rodriguez. "I went to Room PD and talked to Tony Rodriguez. He was dispatching. I told Tony Quay I was a mile there. He picked up the phone and he called Jimmy Tresca. And Jimmy Tresca said he didn't know where Melanie was last year. He knew she was with Bertini." According to Mary Ann, that was the first account she heard placing Melanie with Bertini. She was familiar with Bertini, so she went to his home. She recalls that members of his family told her he had spent the night at home with his girlfriend. Mary Ann then learned where he was working and went there to ask him directly about Melanie. "And I asked him, 'Hey, I'm looking for Melanie. She didn't come home last night. Do you know where she is? What's going on?' And he says to me, 'Oh no. I haven't seen her since I left the party last night. She was still on the woods with Jimmy Tresca and the other kids at the party." If Mary Ann's recollection is accurate, that account conflicted with what she had just heard Tresca say during Officer Rodriguez's phone call. Mary Ann says she then went to speak with Tresca herself. According to Mary Ann, Tresca told her he had left the party to drive several teenagers home and that Melanie had declined to ride because she wanted to remain with Bertini. Mary Ann recalls Tresca also saying that he later returned to the area, called down into the woods, and heard Bertini answer. Mary Ann then returned to Bertini's workplace. She told him that Tresca said Melanie was last with him and asked why he didn't give her a ride home if that was the case. Mary Ann says he told her he only had one helmet for his motorcycle so he couldn't bring her home. Even roughly two hours, Mary Ann recalls hearing several accounts of Melanie's final known movements. In one, Melanie remained with Bertini. In another, she was still with Tresca and other teenagers. I cannot independently establish the exact wording, order, or accuracy of every conversation Mary Ann remembers, but her account is consistent with one central point. By late Saturday morning, Melanie's family was receiving conflicting information about who had last been with her and what happened after the party. The family spent the rest of that day contacting friends, trying to sort through those accounts and waiting for Melanie to call. Mary Ann says she and Melanie's father filed a missing person report with Uber and Police by noon Saturday. The following morning, October 29, family members went into the woods to search. They still considered the possibility that Melanie had been hurt or had tried to walk home, but no one could provide a confirmed account of where she went after the party. When Melanie's family filed that missing person's report, they were gut punched by the initial police response. Because of one past incident of "running away," Melanie's absence was considered another possible act of adolescent rebellion. She ran to stay at a friend's house. It was just kid stuff fighting with her parents. My aunt and her had an agreement though that if you ever are going to be out late or if you're ever, you know, in arguments with anybody or upset about something, all I ask is that you just call me and just check in. And after that time when she ran away, she had always checked in. This time there was nothing. This time, Melanie didn't have anything to run away from, and every reason to stay. Billy Sue remembers the big holidays, family gatherings, and time spent with Melanie in the close-knit neighborhood where many of their relatives lived. Melanie herself moved between the homes of her maternal grandmother and her aunt Mary Ann who lived nearby. It was a true village upbringing surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins. Eve hadn't always been easy. A 2009 episode of 2020 reported that Melanie's parents struggled with substance use and fought often. By 1989, she was living with her aunt and grandmother, cared for by close extended family members who loved and supported her. There was definitely no lack of love and support to Melanie at all. Melanie loved her big extended family right back. There were crowded Christmas eaves at their grandmother's small house, where every relative was expected to appear even though they barely fit. Through all the voices and sounds at those crowded but joyful family events, Melanie's laugh cut through. From across the room, you could see her wide smile and the dimples that appeared when she was genuinely amused. When she was smiling big, you knew that it wasn't fake. The dimples would come out and the voice and the laugh was so distinctive. In the fall of 1989, Melanie was a freshman at Wuburn High School. Her 15th birthday was approaching and her father had promised to take her shopping for a leather jacket. Her braces were scheduled to come off the following week and her aunt Mary Ann planned to take her back to the mall afterward for more shopping. So that was what she was totally excited about and wouldn't stop talking about. Her relationship with her mother was improving, and the family knew of no conflict or crisis that would explain her leaving without a word. She was such a good place. She was in a great headspace. Great things were happening for her, and it did not fit the criteria. And yet, Melanie's family felt their concerns were dismissed, and they believe the early assumptions cost the investigation critical time. They thought that she was a runaway. She had runaway before. This is probably the same thing. Amber alert wasn't out yet, so we kind of were pushed to hurry up and wait and just, oh she'll be home. She was just a runaway. It took about three days for us to get a real search done of the areas. We had to press. It took six months for us to get a detective on this. In the meantime, Melanie's family started their own investigation. Wuhan is a small town, and everyone knows everyone, especially back then in that generation, in that era. Everyone had a connection with somebody, so we really were trying to pinpoint who was at this party, questioning these people ourselves, giving any information we had to the police to try to push and get a detective on this. And this was something way more important than just a runaway. This is now not a runaway situation. Although the family notes that it took roughly six months for a detective to be meaningfully assigned to the case, at least some police activity reportedly did begin much sooner. Tresca himself told 2020 that officers brought him to a state police barracks for questioning two days after Melanie disappeared. Eventually, investigators also began speaking with the other teenagers who had attended the party. From those interviews, they confirmed that about a dozen kids had gathered in the woods at Friday night drinking and smoking. As the night went on, the crowd gradually thin. Melanie was reportedly with a group of friends until around one o'clock in the morning. Another account placed her with five people in the hours after the main gathering broke up. Police believed only three teenagers remained in the woods at the end of the party. Melanie, Tresca, and Bertini. The two boys conflicting accounts left investigators without a clear final sighting. One version had Melanie standing alone near the beginning of the trail in the early morning hours. Bertini reportedly said he left on a motorcycle and couldn't take Melanie with him because he only had one helmet. But as Melanie's family had already discovered in those first conversations, each boy identified the other as the last person with her. Investigators and volunteers searched the area around the party, including the woods near Washington Street, Montville Avenue, and the Aberjana River. Cadaver docs were eventually brought in, and members of Melanie's family and community joined law enforcement during ground searches. Yet nothing recovered from those efforts explained where Melanie had gone. Meanwhile, reported sightings began coming in. One caller claimed Melanie had been seen at a bowling alley. Another tip suggested she was staying at an address in Somerville. Melanie's aunt took that possibility seriously enough to go there herself and sit outside the property for hours, watching for any sign of her niece. Melanie never appeared. Those early tips offered the family brief flashes of hope, but none produced a confirmed sighting. Days had already become weeks and then months. Melanie's 15th birthday passed. The leather jacket she'd been promised was never purchased. Her brace's appointment came and went. The family continued searching, but the trail leading away from the woods never became any clearer. For nearly three years, little about the investigation appeared publicly. Billy Sue remembers tips continuing to reach the family and police, but none seemed to lead anywhere. She also acknowledges that the family wouldn't necessarily have known every step investigators were taking behind the scenes during that period. But then, in August 1992, an anonymous tip directed police to walk or pond in Wilburn. [Music] According to Beverly Ford's reporting for the Boston Herald, the message was blunt. "Look in, walk or pond. You'll probably find Melanie Melanson in a car." The caller didn't explain how they knew this, identify the vehicle, or provide any other details. But the specificity was enough for Wilburn police and Massachusetts state police divers to search the pond. The conditions were difficult. Thick, underwater weeds, limited visibility and made it hard for divers to move through the water. They didn't find any vehicle containing Melanie, or evidence connected to her disappearance. Walker pond was searched again that November after additional tips pointed investigators back to the same location. Once again, the search ended without Melanie. For Billy Sue, the pond has never been completely eliminated. She believes the divers did what they could with the equipment and conditions they faced in 1992, but she would still like to see Walker pond examined again using modern technology. The searches at Walker pond were among the last major developments to receive significant public attention for years. Melanie's case remained open and tips still surfaced, but without a confirmed location, physical evidence, or a witness willing to resolve what happened after the party, the investigation gradually went cold. In May 2009, nearly 20 years after Melanie vanished, Middlesex District Attorney Gary Leone returned to the place where she was last seen, and announced a $5,000 reward for information leading either to the recovery of Melanie's remains, or the arrest of whoever was responsible. The money came from the Carol Sunde Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which helped families who didn't have the resources to fund substantial rewards on their own. The location of the announcement wasn't intentional. Leone stood near the same wooded area where the party had taken place, surrounded by the landscape investigators had been circling since 1989, and his message wasn't aimed at a stranger passing through wooburn that night. Leone said there were people who had been with Melanie, and others who had been told things after she disappeared. Investigators believed someone had carried information for years and could still break the case open. By that point, authorities were no longer speaking publicly as though Melanie might still be alive. They believed she had been killed, and that her remains had been concealed. Investigators also told 2020 they had reason to believe more than one person had been involved, not only in hiding Melanie, but possibly in moving her remains or concealing them again sometime later. The renewed attention gave Melanie's family something they hadn't had in a long time, public pressure. News coverage returned, Melanie's photograph appeared again. Her name was spoken outside the family, outside wooburn, and outside the small group of people who had spent years trading rumors and half answers. By September, investigators were backed in the woods. John Element reports for the globe that over two days September 24th and 25th 2009, authorities excavated an area near the former General Foods plant, which by then was part of the Kraft Foods property. The land stretched along the Aberjana River, within the same broader section of east wooburn where Melanie had last been seen. The old plant sat on a parcel of roughly 59 acres, leaving investigators with a wide mix of woods, riverbank, and formal industrial ground to consider. According to the 2009-2020 report, the search area was fenced off from the public, deep in the woods, and approximately a thousand feet from where investigators believed Melanie was last seen. Authorities said they were acting on new information received only days earlier. Police did not publicly disclose whether anything of evidentiary value was found, but the renewed activity left investigators sounding more optimistic than they had in years. Detective Mike Pandoff said the recent developments were encouraging, while prosecutors described the investigation as suddenly "very active" after nearly two decades without a resolution. A little more than a month later, on November 1st, Melanie's family gathered in the parking lot of wooburn Memorial High School for a candlelight vigil. It was the day Melanie should have turned 35. At the vigil that November, then Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Mary and Ryan told Emma Stick Gold of the Boston Globe that investigators had received new, solid leads, and were closer than ever to answers. What followed was a series of increasingly specific searches built around a troubling possibility that Melanie's remains had once been concealed somewhere in East Wooburn, and then possibly moved before investigators ever reached the right place. By 2011, Private investigator Michael Garrigan had become one of the key people helping Melanie's family keep the search moving. Garrigan, who ran advanced and private investigations in Wuburn, had worked the case without charge, for years, helping coordinate volunteers, bringing cadaver dog teams from Connecticut canine search and rescue, and other outside specialists when the family needed resources beyond what law enforcement could provide. That November, a volunteer team of 10 people and four search dogs examined three locations, a grassy area near Montville Avenue and Hill Street, a spot-off Washington street that had already been searched twice and land near Lyndonwood Cemetery in Stonum. Adam Siege reports that three dogs reportedly showed interest at one site. Another area drew even greater attention, a narrow strip of woods and wetlands behind the McDonald's at 333 Montville Avenue between the restaurant and property associated with the former craft foods plant. According to the family, this location was consistent with tips suggesting Melanie's remains had been moved after the party. Cadaver dogs showed interest in one particular area, and subsequent soil samples reportedly tested positive for signs of human decomposition. Contemporary reports, say the soil samples, showed chemical signs associated with human decomposition, suggesting human remains may once have been present there. The testing couldn't identify whose remains they were, or establish why none were recovered. For the family, it was the kind of result that brought them closer and left them exactly where they had started. Something had been detected in the soil, but there was still nothing that could be tested against Melanie, nothing that could be buried, and nothing that could finally answer what happened to her. In early 2012, the family began working to bring in Dr. William Bass, the forensic anthropologist who founded the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility, better known as the body farm. The family hoped Bass's team could use decomposition odor analysis to detect chemical signatures left in the environment, even when no remains were visible. In July 2012, attention shifted to the Middlesex Fells reservation, a large wooded area spanning several communities north of Boston, including Stonum. The search followed new information from a tipster who reportedly became emotional while sharing information they had held for about nine years. According to Garrigan, the tips suggested Melanie's remains had first been placed in Wuburn and later moved to the Fells. One account also claimed that one of the boys last known to have been with Melanie was seen in the area after she disappeared. It wasn't the first time the Fells had been mentioned, either. Bruce Colter reports for the Wuburn advocate that two other tips in the previous months had also directed investigators there. Dozens of volunteers and several cadaver dogs searched 250 acres of the Middlesex Fells in Stonum, two dogs showed interest in the same general location, but nothing conclusive was found. The following month, searchers returned to the Wuburn Woods near the place Melanie was last seen. This was the area where three dogs had previously indicated the possible presence of human remains and where soil testing had reportedly detected signs of decomposition. According to reporting by WBZ1030AM radio, the excavation was supervised by Dr. Anne Marie Myers of forensic archaeology recovery. Archaeologists and anthropologists examined that ground for changes in soil color, texture and composition that could indicate a grave or the former presence of remains. Kristen Cantu reports for the Wuburn advocate that crews used both hand tools and a backhoe to dig trenches and then the soil was sifted by hand, not only for human remains but for anything that might show Melanie had once been there, clothing, jewelry and other personal items. After two days of digging, nothing connected to Melanie was recovered. The results didn't erase the earlier dog alerts or the reported soil findings. They simply added another possibility the family had to live with that Melanie may once have been there but could have been moved before anyone knew where to look. In December of 2012, Massachusetts State Police conducted an aerial search over the former General Foods property. In 2013, Melanie's face appeared on electronic billboards across Massachusetts, another attempt to reach someone whose memory, loyalties or fear may have changed with time. Then, in August 2015, the search came back to the place that had troubled Melanie's family from the very beginning. For reasons, I haven't told you about yet. At the time of Melanie's disappearance, Jimmy Trasca lived in a home on Ran Drive, which abuts the wooded area where the party went down that night. I have a map at darkdownease.com but the short version is this, Ran Drive ended at the same interconnected stretch of woods, riverbank and former industrial land that had drawn so many of the searches over the years. So Trasca lived beside the woods where Melanie was last seen but the family's concern went beyond the address. In October of 1989, Trasca lived with his mother and her boyfriend, Jose Toni Rodriguez. Officer Toni Rodriguez. Yeah, Jimmy Trasca was living with a member of the Wuburn Police Department at the time Melanie disappeared. There's another layer to this too. Tax records show the address was owned from 1987 through 2000 by another Wuburn Police Officer. Rodriguez and Trasca's mother don't appear in the ownership records suggesting they were tenants, but either way, as of 1989, the property was connected to two members of the department investigating Melanie's disappearance. When we finally got detectives involved, when the detectives went to the house as part of their investigation, this officer told them to get off his property and not to come back unless they had a warrant. A fellow police officer and a missing child is involved. I haven't been able to independently verify that through police records and Rodriguez is no longer alive to respond, but from Melanie's family's perspective, it was an extraordinary reaction. A 14-year-old girl had last been seen in the woods behind that house, and the man allegedly refusing access was himself a police officer. For years, that left the family wondering what might have been searched sooner, what might have been preserved, and whether anyone inside the department had been given more deference than the circumstances justified. By August 2015, though, investigators and volunteers had obtained permission to conduct an extensive search of the property. In fact, tax records I reviewed indicate that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts itself had owned five-end seven-ran drive since 2000, although I haven't established why the search did not occur until 15 years later. Teams from Mission for the Missing and Forensic Archaeology Recovery searched the property and excavated portions of the yard, but they didn't find anything connected to Melanie. By then, the investigation had moved through Walker Pond, river banks, industrial property, cemetery land, the middle sex fells, the woods behind McDonald's, and finally, the backyard of the home connected to one of the individuals last seen with Melanie. Along the way, dogs had shown interest. Soil testing had reportedly detected signs of decomposition. Tips had pointed repeatedly to the same small section of East Wilburn, yet every search ended the same way. No remains, no clothing, no jewelry. Nothing the family could bring home. Police have long identified James Trasca and Eugene Bertini as the last two people known to have been with Melanie that night. Both were teenagers. Both acknowledged being at the party, and each account left Melanie with someone else. The 2009-2020 report gives us the fullest public versions of their stories. Trasca said he left the party around three o'clock that morning and offered rides to everyone who remained. According to him, Melanie declined because she wanted to stay behind with Bertini. Trasca said he'd drove the others home, then returned to the woods to make sure the fire was out. People were still there, he said, and then he went home. Bertini didn't speak directly with 2020. His attorney Ed McCormick said Melanie was alive when Bertini left, and that at least one other person, possibly more, remained at the party. Both versions leave a gap. Traska placed Melanie with Bertini. Bertini's attorney placed her with someone else, neither account conclusively establishes who actually saw Melanie last. When the Middlesex District Attorney's Office renewed the investigation in 2009, the district attorney at the time described the two men as sometimes cooperative and sometimes not so cooperative. Authorities still stopped short of publicly calling either man a suspect. During the renewed investigation, prosecutors convened a grand jury and called witnesses connected to the case, including Tresca. Grand jury proceedings are secret so what he said under oath has never been made public, but no indictment followed. Billy Sue told me her family has interacted with both men over the years, most recently through a Facebook comment thread. No matter the setting, she says those exchanges have brought them no closer to Melanie. Denial, they avoid us, it's just the lying, it's just lie, lie, lie. Neither Tresca nor Bertini has ever been charged in connection with Melanie's disappearance. Both of them publicly denied involvement in 2009. Tresca called the investigation harassment and a quote unquote witch hunt, while Bertini's attorney argued that after 20 years without a resolution, investigators may have been focused on the wrong people. But Melanie's family believes at least one of the men came close to saying more. It has been confirmed by multiple sources, including law enforcement affiliates, that after the case was reopened in 2009, one of the persons of interest said he would actually cooperate in locating Melanie's remains as part of a plea deal. According to the account relayed to the family, that person accompanied police into a wooded area near the former craft food's property, then stopped cooperating before any remains were found. I haven't been able to independently confirm that account through police records or court filings, and Billy Sue did not identify which person of interest was allegedly involved. But it helps explain why the family believes investigators came close to learning where Melanie had been taken from one of the persons of interest themselves. And listen, we're not talking about two teenagers who simply grew up under a cloud of suspicion based on rumor alone. In the years after Melanie disappeared, both men accumulated arrests and criminal cases involving allegations of violence, domestic abuse, and other serious conduct. According to later appellate records, Eugene Bartini's involvement with the court system began when he was still a child. In November 1986 at age 13, a juvenile court adjudicated him delinquent and placed him on probation. Two months later, the court found that he had violated that probation and committed him to the Department of Youth Services until age 18. The records don't disclose the conduct behind the original juvenile adjudication and being committed to D.Y.S. doesn't necessarily mean Bartini remained inside a locked facility at all times. The department had authority to confine a child, release him under supervision, or change the conditions of that release. Bartini was 16 when Melanie disappeared in October 1989. He was still legally committed to D.Y.S., but the records I reviewed don't establish where he was living, whether he was confined or what restrictions if any were placed on him that night. Within months of Melanie's disappearance, Bartini began accumulating adult charges in Wuburn. In March 1990 while he was still 16, he was charged with abandoning a motor vehicle, however that case was later dismissed. In June 1990, three days after his 17th birthday, he was accused of leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage. He admitted to sufficient facts and in November that disposition was converted to a guilty finding. He received one year of probation and a $100 fine. He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, arising from an October 1990 incident and was fined $50. In April 1991, while still in D.Y.S. custody, Bartini was charged with operating under the influence. He admitted to sufficient facts and received another year of probation and a 180-day license suspension. In 1996, Bartini was involved in a serious single-car crash on Route 1. News coverage reported that excessive speed and alcohol were believed to be factors. Bartini fractured his neck and his wife suffered extensive injuries. He was charged with operating under the influence, driving to endanger, and driving with a suspended license. By 2009, Bartini was reportedly under house arrest for a probation violation following repeated drunken driving convictions. His attorney characterized Bartini's record at the time as "alcohol-related" and said it contained no convictions for violent crime, kidnapping, or a sex offense. I want to note that separate news reports do document earlier arrests for domestic abuse and assault and battery in 1997 and 1998, but the sources I reviewed don't establish how those cases were resolved. Interestingly, more than 25 years after the 1990 and 1991 cases, the leaving the scene of an accident and OUI cases, Bartini tried to vacate those dispositions. He argued that his continuing D.Y.S. commitment meant the district court lacked authority over the later cases. The courts rejected his challenges, though, concluding that his D.Y.S. status did not invalidate the adult court dispositions under the law then in effect. Now that's a lot of jargon, but I got kind of obsessed with understanding the strategy behind challenging relatively minor convictions so many years later. The briefs don't explain why he pursued the old cases so aggressively, but success would have erased adult convictions rather than merely reduced their penalties. But the timing of the maneuver feels more significant when he put it into context because Bartini had since been convicted in a much more serious case, giving him at least a possible reason to reduce what remained on his record. On April 25, 2011, two teenage brothers were inside a gas station in Wakefield when an armed man entered. According to police reports, the robber ordered the brothers to the floor, struck one of them in the head with a gun, stole roughly $353 from the station, and ripped a silver necklace from the other teenagers' neck. That victim told police a gun had been pressed into his stomach during the robbery. Wakefield detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the gas station and a nearby Duncan Donuts. Two officers said they recognized the robber as Eugene Bertini from previous encounters with him. Bertini contacted police and claimed he was a New Hampshire. However, police tracked Bertini to a soggy smotel where they recovered clothing, resembling the robbers, the suspected weapon, the stolen necklace, and approximately $300 hidden inside his shoes. Bertini directed officers to the necklace and acknowledged that the gun, a replica air or BB gun, was the one used in the robbery. A grand jury returned seven indictments against Bertini, including three counts of armed robbery, armed assault with intent to rob dangerous weapon assaults, charges, and larceny. Here's where things get interesting. During that case, prosecutors asked a superior court judge to order Eugene and his wife Leslie, who was also involved in the crime, to provide DNA samples through cheek swabs. The goal was to compare their profiles with possible biological material recovered from the gun, its magazine, and the stolen necklace. But both of them refused to cooperate voluntarily. They did not want to give their DNA samples. Following Bertini and his wife's refusal to voluntarily comply with the order, the judge then authorized investigators to use reasonable restraints to collect the samples. Rather than comply, Bertini challenged the order and carried the fight all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Bertini argued that prosecutors hadn't shown usable DNA existed on the evidence, and that forcing the swab would be unnecessarily intrusive. The Commonwealth, on the other hand, characterized it as a minor, non-invasive procedure, likely to produce relevant evidence. Massachusetts' highest court sided with the Commonwealth. The justices concluded that a cheek swab was a relatively minor intrusion and that Bertini could challenge the use of the evidence later if he were convicted. The order remained in place. But one footnote stood out to me. During the appeal, for Teenie's Attorney Suggestions. that prosecutors might be using the robbery case to obtain his DNA for a separate investigation. The Commonwealth denied that and said the sample could only be used in the robbery prosecution under the court order and laboratory protocols. The court acknowledged that Bertini was apparently considered a possible suspect in another investigation where DNA might be relevant, but it didn't identify that investigation. So we cannot say the court was referring to Melanie's case, but Bertini had already been publicly identified as a person of interest in her disappearance by the time of his arrest, and his attorney was expressly worried that investigators wanted his genetic profile for something beyond the robbery. To be clear, fighting a DNA order in that robbery case doesn't establish that Bertini had anything to do with Melanie's disappearance. It also isn't clear from this decision whether the robbery sample was ever entered into a broader DNA database or made legally available to investigators working Melanie's case. Bertini has never been charged with causing Melanie's disappearance. However, if Melanie's remains are recovered and usable biological evidence is present, investigators could seek lawful comparison samples from relevant individuals. Bertini eventually pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges arising from the robbery. Some of those convictions were later modified or dismissed as duplicative or unsupported, but several remained intact. Of the most recent cases I could trace for Bertini, a publicly available New Hampshire arrest log lists him in October 2023 on a felony fentanyl possession charge, a March 2026 booking entry also lists three outside agency warrants. As for James Tresca, he too racked up several charges to his name over the years, both in and out of state. From what my research shows, Tresca moved to Florida at some point, Florida arrest logs contain entries for a man with the same name middle initial and approximate age. I have not independently confirmed that he is the James Tresca connected to Melanie's case, but someone named James Tresca was arrested on battery and aggravated battery charges in 1999 and on charges of throwing or shooting a dangerous object into a dwelling or vehicle in 2004. In 2009, he was arrested in Lowell, Massachusetts for operating after revocation, speeding, and on a warrant for assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. That October, while the renewed search for Melanie was unfolding, 2020 filmed with Tresca as he was arraigned in Lowell on a domestic abuse charge involving his girlfriend. Tresca pleaded not guilty and told the program he had been drinking whiskey before the incident and had blacked out. He acknowledged that his criminal record included earlier assault and battery cases, but characterized to them as fights from when he was younger, including one in a McDonald's barking lot. Then he addressed the suspicion surrounding Melanie's case directly, "Getting drunk and hooting and hollering once in a while doesn't make you a killer." These records for Eugene Bertini and James Tresca are neither complete nor proof of involvement in Melanie's case, but what we do know about James Tresca's criminal record after the fall of 1989 adds another difficult layer to the suspicion that has followed him since Melanie disappeared. However, he maintains that he had always cooperated with investigators and would do more if he could. But for Melanie's family, the questions surrounding Tresca didn't stop with what he might know. That brings us back to Tony Rodriguez, the wooburn officer living with Tresca's mother at the Rand Drive property. Billy Sue says the family was told that detectives attempted to interview Rodriguez while he was dying of cancer. Detectives made multiple visits to Rodriguez on his deathbed, because we thought that he was the source of the cover-up, looking for a confession or information that he may have because he ended up passing from cancer. And we were told that they tried to go and speak with him on his deathbed. So to me, that tells me that we are on the right track. Why do they feel this way for one of their own? They know something was wrong. They know that something happened. They can't prove it. I understand that. When the family uses the word cover-up, they aren't alleging that every wooburn officer participated. They question whether Rodriguez could have shielded Tresca or received professional deference that delayed scrutiny of the property. I haven't been able to independently verify those reported visits through police records or interviews. And Rodriguez died in 2020. I reached out to the other retired wooburn officer who owned the property back in 1989, but I did not hear back. Wooburn Police Department declined to comment for this episode citing the open status of the investigation. No court, law enforcement agency or public investigation has formally concluded that Rodriguez or anyone else covered up Melanie's disappearance and no one has been charged with obstructing the case. The suspicion created a lasting fracture between the family and wooburn police, but Billy Sue is careful to distinguish the Department of 1989 from the investigators working Melanie's case now. She supports the current detective and believes today's team wants the same resolution the family has wanted all along to shake out the right information that brings Melanie home. Billy Sue tells me that investigators have continued trying to speak with James Tresca and Eugene Bertini over the years. In one more recent instance, the family was told that police attempted to interview one of them while he was incarcerated, but he reportedly refused to talk. I attempted to reach both individuals as part of my reporting for this story, but I didn't hear back from them either. For the record, both men publicly denied involvement when 2020 interviewed them or their representatives in 2009. After more than three decades, the family's theory hasn't grown out of one tip or one search. It comes from the same details repeating over and over, the party, the woods, the conflicting stories, the locations that kept drawing investigators back, and the people who may have heard something afterward. Billy Sue believes Melanie died in or near the woods and that her remains were later moved. What she doesn't know is whether her death was intended. I do not feel that somebody went in and the intention was to kill her. In my heart, I don't believe that. Could it have been an accident and then they freaked out and it's too late now to turn back and they went follow through with everything that they did. Or it did happen on purpose, which also I wouldn't be surprised if that happened. What she can accept is the idea that Melanie simply walked away from the party and disappeared through an entirely unrelated act. The only other thing that could have happened is that she left the party alone and was kidnapped by a whatever or murdered or killed by somebody else. But why then are both guys saying she left with the other one? That's where the differences, if she left alone then say she went on her own. There's too many coincidences and red flags that would lead me to anything else. Melanie's absence changed Billy Sue and shaped the way she raises her own children. Her son is now 14, the same age Melanie was when she disappeared. A photograph of Melanie hangs in Billy Sue's home when her children were old enough to ask who she was, Billy Sue told them about the older cousin who babysat her, who loved fashion and music and cheerleading and she told them what happened. She explained why she needs her own kids to check in, why she tracks their locations and why knowing who they were with matters so much. Over the years many of the people who first searched for Melanie have died without knowing what happened. Billy Sue's father died in 2001 after spending years trying to find Melanie. Melanie's mother died in a fire. Melanie's father, grandparents and brother are all so gone. The more and more this happens that is what is igniting me to find her for them because they put in so much time and effort for 35 years. That's exhausting. The family's first goal isn't prosecution. It's to bring Melanie home and give her a proper burial. Billy Sue has imagined what that day will feel like. I think it's going to be relief. I think it's just going to be even thinking about it as I think bringing part of that emotion that it would be like. I think it would be a sense of relief, validation and of course the sadness is going to start all over again. You're going to go right to day one when you finally get to that point of closure. I think you're still going to have that moment of reliving exactly how this started. Billy Sue and her family believe that someone knows what happened in the woods. Maybe there was chatter the next week at school. Maybe somebody close to the person or person's responsible was on the receiving end of an admission over the years. Maybe those witnesses were frightened. Maybe they were threatened. Maybe they convinced themselves it was too late to speak. Her message to anyone who has waited all these years is simple. We're not going to be upset for people that we've tried to get information from for all this time that come forward now. We're not going to be upset because to me that's going to be the best possible scenario that they came forward and they wanted to help us even if it is 35 years later. You will not hear us say I can't believe it took them 35 years to come forward. You won't hear that out of my mouth. It's never too late. And to whoever is responsible, Billy Sue's message is far less forgiving. We're not going away. This is going to be in your face somehow. You're going to be thinking about this every single day and not just in October. We are dogs with a bone. It is not going anywhere at all. It's just gonna get worse. Someone knows what happened to Melanie Melanson. If fear, loyalty or uncertainty kept you silent before, circumstances have changed. Her family is not asking you to solve the entire case. They are asking you to share what you know. Please contact Detective Mark Raffi at the Wouburn Police Department at 7-8-1-9-3-3-1-2-1-2 extension 4547. You can also email [email protected]. The Middlesex District Attorney's cold case unit can be reached at 7-8-1-8-9-7-6-6-0-0. Melanie's family has also created a fully anonymous online tip portal at MelanieMelanson.com. The form does not require your name, phone number or email address and the family says the site does not log the IP addresses of people who submit tips. It is not too late to bring Melanie home. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdown east.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram @ darkdown east. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and Adia Chuck. I think Chuck What a proof.