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.

If you have information relating to the disappearance of Melanie Melanson, please contact Detective Mark Roffi at the Woburn Police Department at 781-933-1212, extension 4547. You can also email policeinfo@woburnpd.com. The Middlesex District Attorney’s Cold Case Unit can be reached at 781-897-6600. 

Melanie’s family has created a fully anonymous online tip portal at melaniemelanson.com.

Disappearance

More than thirty-six years after Melanie Melanson disappeared, her cousin Billie Sue Hutchins still remembers being 9 years old in the backseat of her parents’ car, and the drive on that Saturday afternoon in late October of 1989.

“I have that vivid memory of driving down Montvale Ave,” Billie Sue said, “That’s one of the bigger memories I have when I was younger. That was probably the first memory I have of Melanie missing, was that day.”

Out beyond Montvale Avenue in Woburn, 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 three-plus decades driving the same roads, searching those same woods, and advocating for their missing loved one.

It all started on Friday, October 27th, 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 hang-out spot, in a wooded area near the industrial and commercial properties clustered around Montvale Avenue, Washington Street and Interstate 93, out behind a dead-end street called Ran Drive along the Aberjona River.

According to the account Billie 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 lived 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 town where you were afraid to walk down the street at night, where you lock your doors,” she explained. “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.

Within 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 Treska 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” Treska nor Eugene “Gene” Bertini responded to my requests for comment.

Mary Ann says she first went to the Woburn Police Department, where she spoke with Officer Tony Rodriguez who was working dispatch.

“I told Tony who I was and why I was there,” Mary Ann explained. “He picked up the phone and he called Jimmy Treska. Jimmy Treska said he didn’t know where Melanie was. Last 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.

In Mary Ann’s words: “And I asked him, ‘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 in the woods with Jimmy Treska and the other kids at the party.’”

If Mary Ann’s recollection is accurate, that account conflicted with what she had just heard Treska say during Officer Rodriguez’s phone call. Mary Ann says she then went to speak with Treska herself.

According to Mary Ann, Treska told her he had left the party to drive several teenagers home and that Melanie had declined a ride because she wanted to remain with Bertini. Mary Ann recalls Treska 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 Treska 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.

Within 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 Treska and other teenagers.

I cannot independently establish the exact wording, order or accuracy of every conversation Mary Ann remembers. But her account is consistent on 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 Woburn 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 the missing persons report, they were gutpunched by the initial police response. Because of one past incident of quote-unquote “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 gonna be out late or if you’re ever in arguments with anybody or upset about something, alls 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.

About Melanie Melanson

Billie 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.

Life hadn’t always been easy. A 2009 episode of 20/20 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.(57)

Melanie loved her big extended family right back. There were crowded Christmas Eves 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.

Billie Sue remembered, “ 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 definitely distinctive.”

In the fall of 1989, Melanie was a freshman at Woburn High School. Her fifteenth 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. She was excited and couldn’t stop talking about the plans.

Her relationship with her mother was improving, and the family knew of no conflict or crisis that would explain her leaving without a word. And yet, Melanie’s family felt that their concerns were dismissed and they believe the early assumptions cost the investigation critical time. 

In the meantime, Melanie’s family started their own investigation.

Melanie Melanson’s story continues on Dark Downeast. Press play to hear the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.