Anita Simmons, the victim’s older sister, struggles to share memories publicly.
The Place Where Ludington Talks
Digging Deeper Into the Exhumation of Melissa Simmons
For eight days in the summer of 1993, it seemed as if a Scottville 15-year-old girl named Melissa Simmons had disappeared off the face of the Earth. The prospective MCC sophomore was last seen on June 23rd before her body turned up about eight miles from her home in the Pere Marquette River on July 1st, a quarter mile west of the Indian Bridge on Reek Road. A fisherman found the body in the water wearing only a bra and socks, showing the effects of a week's exposure to the elements of warm air and running water.
The forensic autopsy performed then determined the cause of death was murder but offered no clues to the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) as to who the murderer was, or the precise mechanism used to inflict death. The investigation that followed gave few other answers other than her whereabouts earlier on the day she went missing, according to heavily redacted reports since received from the MCSO, an agency ill-equipped at the time for murder investigations in a county where a murder hadn't happened since the 1950s.
Melissa was buried in Ludington at Pere Marquette Cemetery in 1993, her parents would survive her for a couple of decades but would be interred in the gravesites by Melissa's side not knowing the killer or their motive. Sheriff Kim Cole, a road patrol deputy at the time of Melissa's disappearance, opened the cold case file with some fanfare in 2023, assigning young Detective Kyle Boyd to the task of finally piecing it all together 30 years after the fact without any new evidence being claimed.
Two years into the review, the decision to exhume Melissa's body from her eternal resting place on August 8th was made without any fanfare. It may have went unnoticed by the community if not for a social media post made by our regional medical examiner's office, a post that has been taken down since but is shown here with the cemeteries distinctive background. Melissa Simmons has once again disappeared, this time out of the interior of the earth, nowhere to be found this weekend:
The MCSO would schedule a press conference five days after they disinterred Melissa's body. According to Sheriff Cole, the event was to address concerns brought up on social media about the grave disinterment performed under what appeared to be an official pretense. In true MCSO fashion, the conference would be well televised in local media and TV stations but tell us very little about details. Cole would tell us that a "DNA profile was established", but he would not relate whether that it was of Melissa (which at 32 years would require her bones to be exhumed for a sample) or of some potential suspect, none who have been named over the years.
It seems most probable that Melissa was the "evidence" that Cole referred to when he told the assemblage that Detective Boyd had hand-delivered something to a laboratory in Virginia. It would explain why she has yet to be returned to her gravesite as we arrive at September. It would explain why exhumation documents the Ludington Torch obtained through a FOIA request to the district health department explains that the reason for the disinterment was for a "forensic autopsy".
The problem was that a "forensic autopsy" was already performed more than 32 years ago on Melissa's body when it was more than just bones-- and other decayed organs and tissues that would be too degraded for DNA testing. If the killer had somehow left his own DNA on her clothing or elsewhere, and a week of being in the river hadn't washed it away already, it would have long since been non-detectable. And as Sheriff Cole told us in 2023, there is not a trace of DNA evidence in the case file:
Dr. Stephen Cohle conducted the autopsy out of Grand Rapids. Cohle had more than ten years as a practicing Medical Examiner then, and is still employed in Kent County as chief medical examiner. Even so, his report was mostly inconclusive, ruling murder only when he could find no sign of death by natural causes and by the clothes she had on at the time:
These snippets were found in Pt. 1: of a four-part article in the Manistee News Advocate by Chrissy Streeter back in 2023. Melissa's bones were exhumed on August 8th for a "forensic autopsy", one that had been done back in 1993 by a skilled M.E. when the body was fresh and whole, so one wonders what was to be found in an exhumation and why it takes at least 24 days to forensically finish.
There are plenty of other questions about the 1993 investigation, three that come to mind was how Sheriff Larry Stewart was able to emphatically state at the time that there wasn't a killer on the loose in the community to be worried about, and why they never seemed to have tried to determine how the body got to where it was found. Why could this not have been an accidental drowning never reported by the person(s) who brought her out to that area?
Considering all of the known evidence and throw in all possibilities of what could come up as evidence at this point, what would be the benefit of an exhumation and forensic autopsy of Melissa's remains 32 years later? This is almost as big of a mystery of what happened back in 1993, for every scenario that is imaginable just doesn't fit. As a community, we deserve better answers than what we have received for what we can only label as an official and costly desecration of her gravesite.
Streeter's 2023 articles appear to be the most comprehensive effort to date regarding the media or others looking into the death of Melissa Simmons, and we include parts 2-4 here to let folks get the full picture of the mystery without having to deal with the paywalls and pop-ups that plague the Manistee paper's website. Before that we have a Bitter Endings video that provides better insight into the case than most documentaries have:
Pt. 2: Chet was 18 years old when his younger sister, Melissa Simmons of Scottville, disappeared on June 23, 1993. The 15-year-old’s body was found by a fisherman one week later in the Pere Marquette River, approximately 6 miles from her home.
“I don’t like strangers knowing her story. That they feel the need to talk about her.”
Anita said it is equally difficult when those familiar with Melissa question her about updates on the case — difficult because there is nothing to report.
Though the siblings moved away from Scottville years ago, their father Albert Simmons and stepmother, Rosemarie Simmons, remained living in Mason County.
Al and Rose regularly reached out to local news and media outlets trying to get coverage of the case over the years. Both have died and Anita is unsure about how to move forward.
“Chet always feels like we should carry on and try to figure out getting her case solved. But it’s hard for me to carry that on because I don’t know if there’s ever going to be an answer,” Anita said.
For investigators who worked the case, Melissa’s story begins on the night of June 23, 1993. It was the night she disappeared after stopping by the Scottville Wesco gas station about one block from her home.
Melissa was born on Dec. 26, 1977 in Wichita, Kansas. Chet was around 3 years old at the time, but he distinctly remembers riding in the car to pick up his mother and baby sister from the hospital.
“We really thought she was going to be a Christmas baby. At least, that’s what my dad (said),” Chet said.
Anita and Chet explain that their family history is complicated.
When father, Albert Simmons, died in 2019, his obituary stated, “He lived an adventurous life that led him to three wives, seven children and two stepchildren.”
Anita, Chet and Melissa are the children of Al and mother Vesta Simon. When Melissa was a baby, her parents separated. Not long after, Vesta struggled with her mental health and the three children were placed in children’s homes in Kansas.
Al used to tell Anita that the youngest kids were on the cusp of being adopted when he was notified and asked to sign away his parental rights.
Chet remembers the story slightly differently, that a worker at the home wanted to adopt baby Melissa.
Chet added, “At least that’s what my dad said. He liked to embellish.”
Anita said that Albert went to court and was granted full custody of the children. The family predominantly remained in the Wichita area and Anita would become a primary caregiver when her father went to work.
She recalls Melissa as an easy-going little girl who liked Rainbow Brite.
“Melissa would never get into trouble. She was always a sweet girl,” Anita said.
Her brother remembers summers playing on a rope swing with Melissa, or Missy, as she was often called.
“We were just close. We were two peas in a pod,” Chet said.
However, Chet points out that his childhood was far from that of a Norman Rockwell painting. The family struggled financially.
After a time, Al reunited with his former wife Rose. The two moved their blended family to Scottville in 1988. Anita wonders how the decision ultimately changed their lives.
“Making a choice, it can change your life forever. You would never think in a small town it would happen. But it did,” Anita said
Melissa was about 10 years old when the family moved to Mason County. Anita and Chet recall that she easily took to small-town living.
“I don’t think she had any problems when we moved up here. She fit in like a glove. People loved her. She wasn’t the popular girl, but she had good friends,” Anita said.
By the time she reached her freshman year at Mason County High School, Melissa may not have run with the popular crowd, but she was well-known to many for her charismatic personality.
Jason Claveau first got to know Melissa in middle school. They were classmates and their families lived four doors down from one another.
He says that as a teen, he was quick to anger. Melissa was the friend who would make sure he would calm down. Their relationship was never a romantic one, instead Claveau saw her as more of a sister, homework tutor and sometimes therapist.
Claveau said, “She was the one to soften the hardship of being a teenager.”
Melissa’s friends are now in their mid-40s, many with children of their own and some with grandchildren. They reflect on the early 1990s as a time when kids roamed free in the neighborhood until the street lamps turned on. Teens would attend dances at Johnny’s in Custer and parties tucked away on public lands.
By 1993, the Rainbow Brite and rope swing of Melissa’s childhood were replaced with makeup, dating and socializing. Depending on who you talk to, Melissa liked to party, wasn’t too much a partier or resided somewhere in between. One thing they can agree on is that Melissa spent a lot of time out of the house.
Her brother recalls that there was little structure under the Simmons’ roof. Their father worked odd jobs and would travel out of state, leaving Rose to watch the kids. An uncle, Walter Simmons, lived with the family on and off.
“Being a boy, I really wasn't governed where ‘hey, you need to be home by a certain time,’” Chet said.
That spring of 1993 was a season of change for the Simmons children. Anita was planning to go away to college, Chet was graduating from high school, and Melissa was learning how to drive.
Their mother Vesta flew to Michigan in May to attend Chet’s graduation. Within a few weeks, she would return to Scottville to attend her youngest child’s funeral.
Friends have shared one particular photo of Melissa on Facebook, though no one interviewed can recall who took the photo or who first posted it online.
Some believe the picture was taken at Chet’s graduation party. If true, it may be the last known photo taken of the teen. In it, Melissa wears a brown bomber jacket and smiles at the camera, her left hand gesturing the “I love you” sign.
Pt. 3: That summer, Melissa’s lifeless body was pulled from the Pere Marquette River, six miles from her home in Scottville. According to an autopsy summary obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the medical examiner determined that her cause of death was homicide.
During the investigation that followed, detectives pursued leads and conducted interviews to piece together a timeline of when and where the teen was last seen alive.
Memories can prove tricky, especially when trying to recall what occurred 30 years ago. Most people who reported seeing Melissa on June 23, 1993 did not know that those last moments would have any significance.
Many people would first learn that Melissa was missing when she was reported as a runaway at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 26. Others did not find out until an article about a missing teen was published in the local newspaper.
Sara Lutz lived about a block and half away from Melissa and the two teens used to walk home from school together.
In an interview for this series, Lutz recalls that she and her younger sister bumped into Melissa after finishing their newspaper route around 3 p.m. on June 23. It happened at the southeast corner of Broadway Street and Main Street, across from the Scottville Wesco gas station.
“She was like, ‘Do you guys want to go to a party?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that's never happening.’ She giggled and she walked right past us. That's the last time I ever saw her,” Lutz said.
Lutz said that she was never interviewed by law enforcement about the interaction. She wonders if Melissa was actually joking about the party because her friend was aware of the strict no parties rule in the Lutz household.
Another friend, Jason Claveau, believes he saw Melissa that night. In an interview for this series, Claveau said he was working at the Wesco gas station on June 23 and that he saw Melissa come inside to make a purchase around 9:10 p.m.
“She was with two guys and a girl. But I don't know who they were. I didn't get a glimpse of who was in the car, because I was at work. We were just kind of talking. I glanced out the window because they were getting gas and stuff,” Claveau said.
Claveau said that Melissa asked if he could come to a party at Dust Bowl, a popular party spot for teens located on state lands. He asked Melissa to wait for his shift to end at 11 p.m. but she said they were getting ready to go and that he should try to meet up with her later.
Claveau said that he did not go out to the Dust Bowl that night and he doesn’t know if anyone else did either.
Claveau said, “Nobody admitted being out there, honestly.”
Melissa’s older brother Chet Simmons does not believe a big party was going on anywhere near the Indian Bridge the night of June 23.
“The only shindig that was going on that night was between me and my girlfriend, my friend and his girlfriend. We invited Missy out and she said she was heading home,” Chet said.
Chet was 18 years old at the time of his sister’s disappearance and death. In an interview for this series, Chet said he spotted his younger sister across the street from the Wesco gas station.
Looking back decades later, he feels fairly confident that it was dark outside and that she was walking in the direction of their home. He feels even more confident that Melissa was not headed to a party.
“She wasn’t gussied up. She wasn’t wearing any war paint,” Chet said, recalling that Melissa routinely dressed up in her favorite clothes and wore makeup when going out with friends.
He believes that if his sister was headed to a party, she had no reason to lie about it.
Chet said, “She wouldn't withhold that kind of information from me, you know? Because we were closer than that. You know what I mean? We talked about everything.”
That would be the last time the two siblings would talk.
Chet said that he and his friends drove east by car to hang out in a cornfield. They crossed the Indian Bridge. As the two couples drove over the Pere Marquette River, there was no way to know that within one week, Melissa’s body would be found a quarter mile away from that same bridge.
According to a summary of the case from the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, a report of a runaway was taken shortly after midnight on June 26 by the Scottville Police Department. The runaway was 15-year-old Melissa Simmons.
The call did not come into the department until two days after father Albert Simmons and stepmother Rosemary Simmons reported last seeing their youngest daughter.
Later that evening, Melissa Simmons’ status was changed from runaway to missing person based on concerns from Al and law enforcement.
On June 28, the Ludington Daily News published a photo of Melissa on the front page of the Monday edition with the headline “Police hunt missing girl.” The article gave a brief description of the teen and directed people with information to contact Officer Sue Randall of the Scottville Police Department.
In 1993, Randall was one of two officers working under Chief Larry Nichols. In an interview for this series, Randall recalled that she was assigned to Melissa’s disappearance primarily because she worked the day shift. That week was especially busy because the chief was preparing for his daughter’s wedding.
At first, Randall believed that the young teen would show up. After all, there were rumors of Melissa being seen in different locations the weekend after she was last seen by her parents.
But as the days passed, concern for the teen grew. Family members interviewed for this series said that there was no history of Melissa running away.
More troubling to Randall was the fact that Melissa’s close friends had not heard from her.
“Once you get a couple days away and nobody knows where she's at and all of her friends are looking for her, then you know, OK, this isn’t right. There's something going on here, more than just a runaway,” Randall said.
Ultimately, Melissa was found. Her body was discovered by a man fishing on the Pere Marquette River on July 1 at 12:30 p.m.
Soon, word would travel downstream, west to Scottville. And soon, the town would learn that one of its 1,300 residents would never return home.
Recollections
Melissa Simmons timeline: June 23, 1993 to July 1, 1993
This timeline is compiled from interviews for this series as well as 14 pages of reports and summaries obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request.
The summaries were redacted by the Mason County Sheriff’s Office. Redactions are often standard practice in publicly released police reports to ensure confidentiality of certain details and to protect private information of those named in the reports. This timeline is limited to these redacted reports and details provided by former investigators.
JUNE 23, 1993
7:45 p.m. — Melissa is dropped off at her home.
9:30 p.m. — Melissa tells father and stepmother that she was going to the Scottville Wesco gas station to get a soda pop and then to the home of (redacted name).
At 9:45 p.m. — Melissa is seen at the Wesco by a cashier. (Redacted name) reported that Melissa was looking for a party and that she was in the company of two unidentified blond girls.
10:10 p.m. — Melissa is spotted at the Wesco by (two redacted names). One of these individuals reports that he spoke with Melissa and saw her walking east toward Broadway Street.
10 p.m. — 11 p.m. Melissa is reportedly seen at Spartan West Bowling Alley. This sighting was never confirmed by police.
JUNE 26, 1993
12:30 a.m. — Melissa’s father Albert Simmons calls the Scottville Police Department. The officer on duty takes the report of a runaway.
9:45 p.m. — Melissa’s status is changed to a missing person.
JULY 1, 1993
12:30 p.m. — A man fishing the Pere Marquette River discovers Melissa’s body approximately a quarter mile west of the Indian Bridge.
4:00 p.m. — 8 p.m. Department dive team and investigators search the area surrounding the Indian Bridge.
Pt. 4: Mason County has a higher clearance rate than the state average, with 63% of homicide cases being solved from 1993 to 2021. However, Melissa Simmons’ death remains unsolved.
Melissa disappeared after leaving the Scottville Wesco gas station by foot on the evening of June 23, 1993. Her body was found in the Pere Marquette River on July 1, 1993 approximately a quarter mile from the Indian Bridge.
Susan Randall, a former Scottville Police officer, was assigned to the case when Melissa was reported as a missing person.
In an interview for this series, Randall explained that the department received tips that Melissa was sighted after June 23 and that there was no reason to believe a crime had been committed. She added that when Melissa was missing, they had only done a cursory look at her bedroom.
“We should have treated it as a crime scene, but we didn't know … We should have done more,” Randall said.
Pentwater Police chief Laude Hartrum was a detective at the Mason County Sheriff’s Office in 1993. He explained in an interview for this series that the lack of a crime scene and the time that had elapsed after her disappearance complicated the investigation.
“Even when (the case) was fresh, it was already seven days old,” Hartrum said.
Because Melissa’s body was discovered outside of Scottville city limits, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to respond.
Larry Stewart was acting sheriff at the time. He retired as sheriff at the end of 2004.
Randall recalls being called to the river the day that Melissa’s body was found.
“When I was contacted to come to where they found Melissa’s body, I was approached by Sheriff Stewart and asked what I wanted to do next. I said, ‘We need to call in the state police.’ He then went on to say that the sheriff department could handle the investigation,” Randall said.
She said that the state police had more experience with death investigations, and that they also had investigative tools that were not available in Mason County. Randall would work the death investigation for two to three months with Hartrum and other investigators from the sheriff’s office.
In interviews for this series, Melissa’s older siblings, Anita and Chet Simmons, also wonder if the investigation would have gone differently if the state police were more involved.
Anita said she took a walk by the Pere Marquette River about a year after Melissa’s body was found. She came across a pair of jeans covered in sediment and noticed that they were Lawman jeans, the same brand of jeans she had found in Melissa’s room after her death.
Anita said that the jeans she found in the river were given to the sheriff’s office. It is unknown if they belonged to Melissa.
Her brother also has questions about how the initial investigation was handled.
“I don't want to diminish anything from the detectives. … but best intention wasn't enough. I hate to say it and put it that way, because I'm sure they did put a ton of man hours into this — questioned a lot of people and got a lot of false leads. But once again, if their commander-in-chief would have made the right call, they could have had even more resources to help with this investigation,” Chet said.
Stewart explained that after a homicide occurs, an investigation becomes more difficult as the hours pass. He added that the Michigan State Police and a number of other agencies were involved as consultants and would meet to review the case and go over possible leads.
“They would all come on a certain day. My chief detective would put out the call and they would use our conference room,” Stewart said.
Hartrum said that if the sheriff’s office needed them, the state police would have been tapped for additional manpower. According to reports provided by the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, the Michigan State Police behavioral unit created a potential profile of Melissa’s killer.
For Hartrum, the real challenge of the case wasn’t a lack of resources, but a lack of evidence and leads.
In an interview for this series, current Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole explained that he was working as a traffic cop for the department in 1993. His knowledge of the case is based on reports, but he points out that there are two key objectives in a death investigation.
“It's crucial that you establish timelines early on … And I think that equally important to establishing the timeline is you have to clear family members,” Cole said.
Cole discussed one report that describes an interaction that took place between law enforcement officers and Melissa’s father Albert Simmons the day the family was notified that the body had been found.
Simmons asked where the body had been recovered and Hartum stated in the P.M. River.
"A few minutes later, Simmons asked where Indian River was. Hartrum made notice of this because he had not mentioned that the body had been recovered near the Indian River Bridge, nor did officer Randall,” Cole read aloud from the report.
Cole mentioned there were a couple of things he thought were kind of questionable.
“But again, maybe that stuff was cleared up later. But I don't find it in the report,” Cole said.
Reports obtained from a Freedom of Information Act inquiry contained summaries of interviews conducted during the investigation. These summaries were redacted to keep certain details confidential and to protect personal information.
Summaries obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request describes interviews conducted with Al and Rosemarie Simmons, Melissa's stepmother.
Al and Rose reported last seeing Melissa on the night of Wednesday, June 23. On Friday, Rose said she returned home from work and realized that Melissa’s purse and robe had not moved in those two days.
However, one report suggests that Al and Rose may have known that Melissa was missing earlier than Friday.
In an interview with investigators, a person close to the family stated that Al called and asked if he’d seen Melissa the morning after she went missing. During their conversation, Al told this person that Melissa had not shown up for a babysitting job and was concerned she was abducted.
During the investigation for this series, it could not be confirmed if Melissa was supposed to babysit the night she disappeared.
Al and Rose were never arrested or charged in this case. They cannot be questioned about any inconsistencies found in these reports because both died in recent years.
Looking for answers
A Ludington Daily News article from Jan. 13, 1994 features an interview with acting sheriff Stewart. The article discusses a $3,000 reward being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for Melissa’s death.
The article also discusses the sheriff’s office use of an unorthodox resource to eliminate possibilities.
“The family asked that we present this to a psychic,” Stewart said in a recent interview with the News Advocate.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office hired Noreen Renier. In an interview for this series, Renier said she is now retired, but for many years, she worked with law enforcement agencies as a psychic detective.
By last count, Renier has worked on over 500 cases. She’s also been featured on a number of TV shows including "48 Hours" and Court TV’s "Psychic Detectives."
Renier said that her services were usually discovered through word of mouth and that it was common for law enforcement to test her accuracy.
“It’s never 100% and I warn them. They can’t blindly accept everything I say,” Renier said.
Renier explained that her services should only be used as a last resort, after all other investigative avenues have been exhausted.
When asked about his experience working with Renier, Stewart said that she “told me things that were very interesting.”
Hartrum recalls that while working as a detective on the case, the sheriff’s office tried not to leave any stone unturned.
“We really tried not to overlook anything, and we tried not to discount anything,” Hartrum said.
Citizen detectives
The sheriff’s office was not the only one using psychics to look for answers. Melissa’s brother Chet recalls that the family had their own psychic brought in. Chet’s friend Jeremy Miller also consulted psychics.
Miller lived about half a block away from the Simmons family in Scottville. In an interview for this series, he said that talking to phone psychics was likely part of the reason he became a suspect.
Miller said that police told him to reach out if he had any information on the case. As the investigation went unsolved, he decided to call one of the psychics featured on late night TV.
After the reading, Miller drove around near the Indian Bridge and found locations that matched the psychic’s description of the crime scene.
“I thought, oh my gosh, what if this is the spot … I thought maybe I was really onto something.” Miller said.
Miller showed detectives the site he found and not long after, he was brought in for interviews. His home and car were searched for evidence as well. Years later, Miller received a letter from a Mason County sheriff detective that stated that he was no longer considered a suspect.
Miller continues to follow the case, searching his memory and online discussions for clues.
Tracy Muralt also follows the case.
In an interview for this series, Muralt said she was good friends with Melissa for about a year.
Muralt has saved every news clipping she can find about the case. She has laminated them along with greeting cards and personal notes written by Melissa.
She said that the main reason she has held on to all of these items over the years is because Melissa’s case remains unsolved.
The week Melissa went missing, Muralt and a friend rode out to Manistee to hand out missing person fliers that the family had printed using a class photo. Muralt still has a copy of the flier.
Muralt recalls the sense of desperation that day — how she hoped to see some sign of her friend. The same friend she swapped clothing and V.C. Andrews novels with.
“It was hard, because the whole time, I just kind of kept watching out the window to see if I could see … anything. You know, like, if I could catch … any …,” she said.
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