http://www.latimes.c...ack=1&cset=true
Mass. Woman's Disappearance Still Unsolved
2:14 AM PDT, June 28, 2005
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer
TAUNTON, Mass. -- A few faded yellow ribbons can still be found near Memorial Park, where Debbie Melo played as a child, and along the highway where she was last seen. And Melo's family still puts up missing posters with her picture, hoping that someone will remember seeing her and report the information to police.
But the family feels no closer to finding her than they did the day she disappeared: June 20, 2000.
"It's heart-wrenching knowing that we don't have anything to go on. We don't have any type of closure, nowhere to go visit when we are thinking of her. All we can do is say a prayer," said Patty DeMoura, Melo's younger sister.
Melo's husband, Luis Melo, has said he last saw his wife when she got out of their car after an argument. He says he left her on the side of Route 18, near the South Weymouth Naval Air Station, and drove away, and when he circled back a short time later she was gone.
As they searched for Debby Melo, her family became more and more suspicious of her husband. The couple had a stormy 14-year marriage, family members said.
Police labeled Melo's disappearance "suspicious," but have never identified Luis Melo as a suspect.
Still, says Weymouth Police Chief James Thomas, "There was an odd set of circumstances."
"First of all, it's difficult to believe that an argument in a car could escalate to such a pitch in such a short time that somebody would have to get out of the car -- that to me is odd -- and to go up the road a mile and then to turn around and have the person not be there, on a major roadway like Route 18 is odd too," Thomas said.
The couple married when they were teenagers, had two children and managed a Dunkin' Donuts in Braintree together.
They fought frequently, DeMoura said. Debbie Melo, who was 30 when she disappeared, had taken out a restraining order against her husband in 1996, but the couple remained together until her disappearance.
Three years after she vanished, Luis Melo pleaded guilty to assault and battery charges for shoving and hitting a girlfriend. A year later, the girlfriend took out a restraining order against him.
Luis Melo has "cut off all contact" between his wife's family and his children, Alyssa, now 18, and Luis Jr., now 15, said DeMoura.
"I've sent them cards, but they've been sent back to me," she said. "I've also lost a niece and nephew, and they were just as close as my children to me."
He hung up when a reporter called Friday seeking comment on the fifth anniversary of his wife's disappearance. In 2002, he told The Patriot Ledger that he did not know where his wife was.
"Life goes on," he said then. "I just want somebody to find her, so everything will be over."
Over the years, Melo's family hired a private detective, conducted numerous searches themselves and put up thousands of posters around southeastern Massachusetts. They've held vigils, fund-raisers and memorial Masses for her, offered a $5,000 reward and put her name and photo on missing-persons Web sites. In June 2001, her stepfather, Joseph Gagnon, was stabbed to death when he got into a fight with a man over Melo's disappearance.
"You think of it the first thing when you wake up in the morning, and you think of it before you go to bed at night," said Steve DeMoura, Debbie Melo's brother-in-law.
Confrontation over missing woman may lead to charges
By Terence J. Downing, Enterprise staff writer
TAUNTON  Tensions between the two families of a missing Taunton woman erupted Wednesday night into a confrontation that could lead to criminal charges, according to police.
The confrontation occurred on West Water Street between Luis Melo, 36, of 60 Baylies Road and Richard Whalley, 42, of 96 Old Colony Ave., in East Taunton.
Melo's wife, Debbie, mysteriously disappeared five years ago on June 20.
Whalley is Debbie Melo's brother and has been outspoken in his belief that Luis Melo is responsible for his sister's disappearance, although Luis Melo has never been charged with a crime.
Luis Melo and Whalley crossed paths while driving through Weir Village Wednesday night.
Melo was with his girlfriend, Samira DeOliveira, 23. Whalley was with his wife, Robin, 37.
Melo told police that Whalley had a knife, threatened to kill him and followed him.
Whalley denies the accusations and said Melo started the incident by yelling, swearing and making accusations at him.
There was no physical contact between the two men.
"I told Richard to turn around. I told him to let it go. He's not worth it," said Robin Whalley.
Whalley said she was frightened by Melo's behavior.
"I didn't know if he had a gun. He was screaming and yelling. I was shaking," she said.
"He said Richard had a knife and followed them. That's a lie. Richard had a cell phone," she said.
Robin Whalley said she and her husband were on their way to pick up a lawnmower.
Melo reported the incident to police and a few hours later Patrolman Peter MacDougall went to Whalley's home.
Police said they are investigating the case and it is possible criminal complaints could be filed against Whalley.
"The police said they were looking into it and that we would be summoned into court," said Robin Whalley.
She said it is not the first time Melo and her husband have had confrontations.
"We've had confrontations a few times," said Whalley.
The Whalley family, Debbie Melo's mother, Marilyn Gagnon, and her sister, Patti DeMoura, held a remembrance Mass on June 20 to mark the fifth anniversary of Debbie Melo's disappearance.
Luis Melo did not attend the Mass.
Police said Luis Melo was the last person to see Debbie Melo alive when he told them he let his 31-year-old wife out of the car on Route 18 in Weymouth after an argument. He did not report her missing for 24 hours.
http://enterprise.so...news/news09.txt
7/15/05
