Melanie Ruth Camilini, a 29-year-old mother of two from Seymour, Connecticut, disappeared in the winter of 2003. She was last seen in the Waterbury area sometime in January in the company of two men. Her history of substance abuse and repeated periods of leaving complicated early efforts to determine whether she had truly vanished; her mother filed an official missing person report in April 2003 when the family could not contact her.

In April 2015 investigators searching a wooded area behind a New Britain shopping plaza recovered skeletal remains; forensic testing later identified one set as Melanie’s. The location had already produced other victims, and investigators linked the discoveries to William Devin Howell. Howell, who was already incarcerated for the manslaughter of a 2003 victim, became the prime suspect in multiple disappearances after investigators found incriminating evidence in his van. He was charged in connection with Melanie’s death and the deaths of other women, and in November 2017 pleaded guilty and received six consecutive life sentences.

If anyone knew Melanie’s movements in early 2003 or saw her in the Waterbury area that January, please come forward with what you remember.