Melissa Witt was 19 when she vanished from the Bowling World parking lot in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on a cold December evening in 1994. She had finished a shift as a dental assistant and was on her way to meet her mother for a hamburger after a brief money-related disagreement; her mother had left a note as a peace offering. A stranger helped jump-start Melissa’s white Mitsubishi Mirage, and the car was later found in the bowling alley lot with blood on the pavement and Melissa’s keys and an earring nearby.

Six weeks later, on January 13, 1995, two trappers found her naked body in a remote area of the Ozark National Forest about 50 miles from the parking lot. The cause of death was ruled strangulation. Her clothing, jewelry, and a Mickey Mouse watch were missing and never recovered. No one has ever been charged in her murder.

Over the years investigators examined several persons of interest. Charles Ray Vines, linked to two other 1990s murders and seen by a witness wearing a bowling league shirt, had ties to the area where Melissa’s body was found; he died in 2019. Larry Swearingen, executed in 2009 for another young woman’s murder, was also considered but was never definitively connected to Melissa’s case. Does anyone have information about Melissa’s last known movements or the bowling alley parking lot that night?