Shannon Melendi, a 19-year-old college student, was scorekeeping at a softball game in Atlanta on a Saturday afternoon in March 1994 when she disappeared. The Miami native was abducted, raped and murdered by Colvin “Butch” Hinton III, a convicted sex offender who had been working as an umpire at the softball field the day Melendi was taken, WKYC reported.
Although authorities focused their efforts on Hinton early in the investigation, it wasn’t until 10 years later that he was charged with her murder and 12 years later that he was found guilty. To this day, Melendi’s remains have never been found, and Hinton is the only person in the history of the state of Georgia to be convicted of murder without either a crime scene or a body, the Miami Herald wrote.
At the time of Melendi’s murder, Hinton was already a convicted sex offender, having been found guilty of the kidnap and rape of a 14-year-old girl in the 1980s, the Miami Herald reported. The Sun-Sentinel wrote that he had been sentenced to four years in prison in 1982 for that crime but was released after less than two years.
Melendi Was a Sophomore at Emory University & Had Dreams of Serving Her Country & Studying Law
FacebookShannon Melendi in a Facebook photo.
Melendi was born on October 20, 1974, and was raised with her younger sister Monique in Miami by her parents. She was a high achiever in high school, attending Southwest High School in Dade County, Florida. She was heavily involved at school, becoming the president of her junior and senior classes, the captain of the debate team and a member of the soccer team, WKYC reported.
Her mother told the outlet, “She wanted to join the Navy in the JAG Corps and her whole plan was to go to Washington. She had a dream to be on the Supreme Court. And I don’t doubt that she could have made it.” At the time of her disappearance, the Emory University sophomore, whose goal was to pursue law, was working part-time at a softball field in Atlanta as a scorekeeper.
On March 26, 1994, Melendi left the softball field in her car and was not seen again. The following day, her car was found at a gas station close by, unlocked and with the keys in the ignition, the Miami Herald wrote.
Hinton Was Convicted of Arson After He Set His House on Fire in 1995 & Investigators Believed He Was Trying to Destroy Evidence
While investigators tracked Melendi as a missing person, the case changed to a kidnapping investigation after someone called their hotline and said they had Melendi, WKYC wrote. Authorities traced the call to a phone booth and found a piece of Melendi’s jewelry left inside by the caller. The taped pouch was analyzed and traced to Hinton’s job working with aircraft at Delta Airlines.
Hinton was identified as the last person to see Melendi alive, the outlet reported, as authorities found he’d been working as an umpire at the softball field the same day Melendi vanished. According to some reports, Hinton had been reprimanded in 1994 by the softball club’s management for flirting with Melendi during games.
Hinton denied involvement in Melendi’s disappearance, but around the same time, his house caught fire, WKYC wrote. In 1995, he was found guilty of arson and insurance fraud and sentenced to federal prison for seven years.
Investigators believed he was attempting to get rid of evidence and looked through his home and backyard, finding evidence that could possibly be linked to other crimes — such as a collection of women’s sweaters buried in his yard — but no sign of Melendi’s body. Despite the lack of a crime scene or body, prosecutors decided to charge Hinton with murder.
Hinton Confessed to Her Murder After He Was Already Convicted & Exhausted His Appeals
Hinton was convicted of Melendi’s murder in 2005, but it wasn’t until his appeals were exhausted that he confessed to the crime.
John Petrey of the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, one of the main prosecutors in the case, said Hinton confessed to kidnapping Melendi and raping her before killing her and burning the body in his backyard when his wife was out of town, WKYC wrote.
The day he abducted her, “he raped her, left her tied up,” Petrey said. “Went to a movie with, I think, some nieces and nephews … came back, checked on her again, gave her a glass of water, raped her again, strangled her and killed her.” He said he was a “coward” and gathered the ashes in a bag, which he dumped in a ditch close to railroad tracks.
READ NEXT: Social Media Influencer Set on Fire & Killed by Ex-Husband, Family Says