The coroner would determine that Missy died in the vicinity after finding leaves from local trees in her airway and lungs. Eerily, it was found near a stone resembling nothing so much as a headstone. Her body rested on a pile of earth (samples were taken for analysis) and Rider believes it was ‘moved from its intended resting place’. (One pities the trappers who found it.) She was stripped (her clothes were never found) and sexually assaulted, then strangled. Her family endured a miserable holiday season and less than two weeks later, on 13 January 1995, her body was found fifty miles from home in the Ozark National Forest, near Turner’s Bend. Rider believes she was ‘struck in the head’ during the struggle ominously, ‘little pools of blood’ were found at the parking lot, but not her handbag. Clearly, she did go anywhere with her attacker without putting up a fight. The police found her car in the lot, along with her keys and an earring. She parked in the Bowling World lot, but never made it inside. The evening of December 1, 1994, Missy drove to Bowling World but was not expected: she wanted to surprise Mary Ann. Mary Ann Witt was one of a bowling league Missy frequently met her at Bowling World after work to have dinner there, usually hamburgers. Missy was on very good terms with her mother. Called Missy, she was a pretty blue-eyed blonde who worked in a dental clinic, planning to become a dental hygienist one day, possibly going to Little Rock for her education. Fort Smith has a population of over 85,000, yet has a small town feel, the sort of place where people know their neighbours and greet strangers with a smile.Ī cursory glance at her photographs tells you that twenty-year-old Melissa Witt was always smiling. To those who knew her, it seems like yesterday.įort Smith was acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 prior to that, French fur traders paddled up and down the Arkansas and other rivers in the area to trade with local peoples. Decemwill mark the twenty-sixth anniversary of the disappearance of Melissa Witt of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
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