Melissa Witt vanished from the Bowling World parking lot in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on Dec. 1, 1994.
Witt's body was found on Jan. 13, 1995, by two hunters in the Ozark National Forest near Turner Bend in Franklin County. Witt, 19, was found nude, according to investigators, and her killer took her clothes, shoes and jewelry, after strangling her.
Now, nearly three decades later, investigators, reporters and family members are still working to solve the case, and law enforcement agencies such as the Fort Smith Police Department, Crawford County, Sebastian County, Van Buren Police Department, and the FBI are collaborating to put the pieces together to find Witt’s killer.
According to investigators, Melissa was a well-liked teen who planned to pay a surprise visit to her mother, who was enjoying a night out bowling, but Witt never made it inside the Bowling World building.
"She was an ambassador to her college, which meant the college had her go and recruit students because they wanted students like her. You know, she worked after school. She was already a hard worker. She had big dreams for her life. You know, she went to meet her mom at bowling, at a bowling church league. It's everything we're told to do as young people, you know, get a good education, work hard, have a good close relationship with your parents, and be a good kid," said Charlene Shirk, a former reporter at KFSM-CBS who reported on Witt's case.
Shirk thoroughly covered the case for years, speaking with family members and the police involved to deliver updates to the public.
An ABC News Studios docuseries now streaming on Hulu, "At Witt's End: The Hunt for a Killer" chronicles the investigation into the missing woman and features exclusive interviews with local detectives, FBI agents, and the district attorney's office who are working together to solve the case.
Following Witt's disappearance, blood was found in the bowling alley parking lot and in Witt's vehicle, and there were apparent signs of a struggle, according to investigators. Investigators from multiple departments immediately stopped the cases they were working on and switched their focus to finding out what happened to Witt.
As police were gathering information on potential suspects, one name in particular stood out. Charles Ray Vines, from Fort Smith, had a criminal rap sheet that included murder. According to investigators, Vines' heinous acts against women were similar to the way Witt died.
In the early 2000s a new suspect arose after he was arrested and charged with murdering two females at different times in 1994 near where Witt was murdered.
"We later developed a suspect, Charles Ray Vines. His name came to light when he tried to kill; I think it was a 16-year-old girl in Crawford County," Detective Fran Hall, of the Fort Smith Police Department, said.
Vines, at the time, had been arrested for breaking into the home of a teenage girl, raping her and trying to kill her. He also was accused in the rape and murder of 58-year-old Juanita Wofford.
In 2000, Vines was convicted of murdering Wofford and raping the 16-year-old. Once he was in police custody, investigators made a deal with him that if he confessed to unsolved cases, including the murder of Melissa Witt, he would get to live. Vines was on death row at the time.
In 2019, FBI agents Rob Allen and Rueben Gay led the investigation into Vines as they jumped in to try to solve Witt's case.
"There was a lady had emailed a detective," Allen said. “She worked with Charlie Vines' mother, and Charlie Vines sometimes would show up to his mother's work, and this witness reported that she saw him wearing a bowling league shirt of some sort."
Vines even drew maps of the Ozark Mountain area. And he did a work order within an 8-minute drive of where Witt's body was found, police said.
Detectives from the multiple departments working the Witt case all tried to get an interview with him, but failed because he was ill and not conscious, according to Allen. Then, he died in 2019 without ever giving Agent Allen or Agent Gay an interview about Witt's murder and if he was involved.
After his death, Vines was still a prime suspect. Investigators went to his home and visited places he would frequent in an attempt to find any evidence.
"The working group, Fort Smith PD and FBI, went out to the dump site of Melissa Witt, and this was 27 years later after she had been located," Allen said. "The test was what would we see if we ran the dogs on this site where decomposition had happened? What would that even look like? And it was admittedly just a test to, out of curiosity. And what we did was we had them start at a point where they wouldn't know if they were even going to cross a crime scene of any sort."
Police say they felt it was necessary to use canines to help with the investigation. The canines would be able to detect if Witt's scent was at multiple scenes where Vines lived and frequently visited.
The dogs found a cigarette filter and mattress cover with Vines' DNA at one location. It was the same Cambridge brand cigarette filter that was located where Witt’s body was found, Allen said.
While the investigation into Vines heats up and the detectives await the lab results, they cannot ignore another potential suspect, who lived near Witt.
He is Travis Crouch, who was moved to Arkansas after being released from jail in another state. He has a long criminal history filled with violence and is currently in prison in Colorado for the kidnapping and sexual assault a young woman.
Investigators will not stop until they learn whether he killed Melissa Witt.
