The Disappearance of Melanie Melanson (Massachusetts)

In a small New England city, a teenager disappeared after a night in the woods, and almost immediately, the story of what happened fractured. The last people known to be with her gave conflicting accounts. Her family believed the investigation lost precious time. As the years passed, searches kept returning to the same narrow stretch of land, the same handful of names, and the same possibility that someone had been carrying the truth all along. After decades of searches, whispers and shifting loyalties, someone still knows where to find her. And it’s time to speak up. If you have information relating to the disappearance of Melanie Melanson, please contact Detective Mark Roffi at the Woburn Police Department at 781-933-1212, extension 4547. You can also email [email protected]. The Middlesex District Attorney’s Cold Case Unit can be reached at 781-897-6600. Melanie’s family has created a fully anonymous online tip portal at melaniemelanson.com.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:33Kylie Low?

  In a small New England city, a teenager disappeared after a night in the woods. And almost immediately, the story of what happened fractured. The last people known to be with her gave conflicting accounts. Her family believed the investigation lost precious time. And as the years passed, searches kept returning to the same narrow stretch of land, the same handful of names, and the same possibility that someone had been carrying the truth all along. After decades of searches, whispers, and shifting loyalties, someone still knows where to find her, and it's time to speak up.

• 1:18Kylie Low?

  I'm Kylie Low, and this is the case of Melanie Melanson, on Dark Down East.

• 1:34Kylie Low?

  More than 36 years after Melanie Melanson disappeared, her cousin Billy Sue Hutchins still remembers being nine years old, in the back of her parents' car, and the drive on that Saturday afternoon in late October of 1989.

• 1:50Speaker 02

  I have that vivid memory of driving down Montvale Ave. And that's one of the bigger memories I have when I was younger. That was probably the first memory I have of Melanie missing was that day.

• 2:03Kylie Low?

  Out beyond Montvale Avenue in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the woods along the river, was the place Melanie was last seen. At that point, the family didn't yet know that they would spend the next three-plus decades driving the same roads, searching those same woods, and advocating for their missing loved one. It all started on Friday, October 27, 1989. After school that afternoon, 14-year-old Melanie Melanson and her friend Lori heard about a party going down later that night. It would be at a known teenage hangout spot in a wooded area near the industrial and commercial properties

• 2:44Kylie Low?

  clustered around Montvale Avenue, Washington Street, and Interstate 93, out behind a dead-end street called Ran Drive along the Aborjana River. According to the account Billy Sue has pieced together, Lori didn't want to go to the party. Melanie did. The plan came together like this. Melanie told her grandmother, who she was living with at the time, that she would be spending the night at Lori's house right next door. Melanie would get a ride from an older teenager who had a car, and then return to Lori's house after the party. She would throw rocks at Lori's window to be let inside without waking anyone else up. I know I'm talking to at least a few elder millennials here,

• 3:28Kylie Low?

  and we know this maneuver all too well. You say you're spending the night somewhere, you hope no one calls to verify, and then you sneak off to do things with your friends that the adults in your life may or may not approve of. In a small New England town especially, it was a deception that didn't feel too risky.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  This wasn't a town where you were afraid to walk down the street at night, where you lock your doors. It wasn't something that we were worried about.

• 3:55Kylie Low?

  The next morning, Melanie's grandmother went looking for her. That's when Lori told her Melanie never showed up. Within hours, Melanie's Aunt Mary Ann began trying to reconstruct the previous night. She contacted people who had been at the party and learned that Melanie was last seen with two teenage boys, James Treska and Eugene Bertini. What follows is her account of the conversations she says she personally had that Saturday morning. I have not independently verified each exchange through police records, and neither James Jimmy Treska nor Eugene Gene Bertini responded to my requests for comment.

• 4:40Kylie Low?

  I want you to hear the following sequence from Mary Ann directly. She says she first went to the Woburn Police Department, where she spoke with Officer Tony Rodriguez.

• 4:51Speaker 03

  I went to Room PD and talked to Tony Rodriguez. He was dispatching. And I told Tony Coy was on wire was there. He picked up the phone and he called Jimmy Treska. And Jimmy Treska said he didn't know where Melanie was last week. He knew she was with Bertini.

• 5:09Kylie Low?

  According to Mary Ann, that was the first account she heard placing Melanie with Bertini. She was familiar with Bertini, so she went to his home. She recalls that members of his family told her he had spent the night at home with his girlfriend. Mary Ann then learned where he was working and went there to ask him directly about Melanie.

• 5:33Speaker 03

  And I asked him, "Hey, I'm looking for Melanie. She didn't come home last night. Do you know where she is? What's going on?" And he says to me, "Oh, no. I haven't seen her since, you know, when I left the party last night. She was still in the woods with Jimmy Treska and the other kids at the party."

• 5:52Kylie Low?

  If Mary Ann's recollection is accurate, that account conflicted with what she had just heard Treska say during Officer Rodriguez's phone call. Mary Ann says she then went to speak with Treska herself. According to Mary Ann, Treska told her he had left the party to drive several teenagers home, and that Melanie had declined a ride because she wanted to remain with Bertini. Mary Ann recalls Treska also saying that he later returned to the area, called down into the woods, and heard Bertini answer. Mary Ann then returned to Bertini's workplace. She told him that Treska said Melanie was last with him and asked why he didn't give her a ride home if that was the case.

• 6:36Kylie Low?

  Mary Ann says he told her he only had one helmet for his motorcycle, so he couldn't bring her home. Within roughly two hours, Mary Ann recalls hearing several accounts of Melanie's final known movements. In one, Melanie remained with Bertini. In another, she was still with Treska and other teenagers. I cannot independently establish the exact wording, order, or accuracy of every conversation Mary Ann remembers, but her account is consistent with one central point. By late Saturday morning, Melanie's family was receiving conflicting information about who had last been with her and what happened after the party. The family spent the rest of that day contacting friends,

• 7:21Kylie Low?

  trying to sort through those accounts, and waiting for Melanie to call. Mary Ann says she and Melanie's father filed a missing person report with Woburn Police by noon Saturday. The following morning, October 29, family members went into the woods to search. They still considered the possibility that Melanie had been hurt or had tried to walk home, but no one could provide a confirmed account of where she went after the party. When Melanie's family filed that missing persons report, they were gut punched by the initial police response. Because of one past incident of "running away",

• 8:01Kylie Low?

  Melanie's absence was considered another possible act of adolescent rebellion.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  She ran to stay at a friend's house. It was just kid stuff, fighting with her parents. My aunt and her had an agreement, though, that if you ever are gonna be out late, or if you're ever, you know, in arguments with anybody or upset about something, alls I ask is that you just call me and just check in. And after that time when she ran away, she had always checked in.

• 8:33Kylie Low?

  This time, there was nothing. This time, Melanie didn't have anything to run away from and every reason to stay.

• 8:43Kylie Low?

  Billy Sue remembers the big holidays, family gatherings and time spent with Melanie in the close-knit neighborhood where many of their relatives lived. Melanie herself moved between the homes of her maternal grandmother and her Aunt Mary Ann, who lived nearby. It was a true village upbringing, surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins. Life hadn't always been easy. A 2009 episode of 2020 reported that Melanie's parents struggled with substance use and fought often. By 1989, she was living with her aunt and grandmother, cared for by close extended family members who loved and supported her.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  There was definitely no lack of love and support to Melanie at all.

• 9:29Kylie Low?

  Melanie loved her big extended family right back. There were crowded Christmas Eves at their grandmother's small house, where every relative was expected to appear, even though they barely fit. Through all the voices and sounds at those crowded but joyful family events, Melanie's laugh cut through. From across the room, you could see her wide smile and the dimples that appeared when she was genuinely amused.

• 9:56Speaker 02

  When she was smiling big, you knew that it wasn't fake. The dimples would come out and the voice and the laugh was so definitely distinctive.

• 10:04Kylie Low?

  In the fall of 1989, Melanie was a freshman at Woburn High School. Her 15th birthday was approaching, and her father had promised to take her shopping for a leather jacket. Her braces were scheduled to come off the following week, and her Aunt Mary Ann planned to take her back to the mall afterward for more shopping.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  So that was what she was totally excited about and wouldn't stop talking about.

• 10:30Kylie Low?

  Her relationship with her mother was improving, and the family knew of no conflict or crisis that would explain her leaving without a word.

• 10:39Speaker 02

  She was such in a good place. She was in a great headspace. Great things were happening for her, and it did not fit the criteria.

• 10:47Kylie Low?

  And yet, Melanie's family felt their concerns were dismissed, and they believe the early assumptions cost the investigation critical time.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  They thought that she was a runaway. She had run away before. This is probably the same thing. Amber Alert wasn't out yet, so we kind of were pushed to hurry up and wait and just, oh, she'll be home. She was just a runaway. It took about three days for us to get a real search done of the areas. We had to press. It took six months for us to get a detective on this.

• 11:21Kylie Low?

  In the meantime, Melanie's family started their own investigation.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  Woburn is a small town, and everyone knows everyone, especially back then in that generation, in that era. Everyone had a connection with somebody. So we really were trying to pinpoint who was at this party, questioning these people ourselves, giving any information we had to the police to try to push and get a detective on this. And this was something way more important than just a runaway. This is now not a runaway situation.

• 11:51Kylie Low?

  Although the family notes that it took roughly six months for a detective to be meaningfully assigned to the case, at least some police activity reportedly did begin much sooner. Treska himself told 2020 that officers brought him to a state police barracks for questioning two days after Melanie disappeared. Eventually, investigators also began speaking with the other teenagers who had attended the party. From those interviews, they confirmed that about a dozen kids had gathered in the woods that Friday night, drinking and smoking. As the night went on, the crowd gradually thinned. Melanie was reportedly with a group of friends until around 1 o'clock in the morning. Another account placed her with five people

• 12:36Kylie Low?

  in the hours after the main gathering broke up. Police believed only three teenagers remained in the woods at the end of the party: Melanie, Treska and Bertini. The two boys conflicting accounts left investigators without a clear final sighting. One version had Melanie standing alone near the beginning of the trail in the early morning hours. Bertini reportedly said he left on a motorcycle and couldn't take Melanie with him because he only had one helmet. But as Melanie's family had already discovered in those first conversations, each boy identified the other as the last person with her. Investigators and volunteers searched the area around the party, including the woods near Washington Street,

• 13:21Kylie Low?

  Montvale Avenue and the Aberjan River. Cadaver dogs were eventually brought in, and members of Melanie's family and community joined law enforcement during ground searches. Yet, nothing recovered from those efforts explained where Melanie had gone. Meanwhile, reported sightings began coming in. One caller claimed Melanie had been seen at a bowling alley. Another tip suggested she was staying at an address in Somerville. Melanie's aunt took that possibility seriously enough to go there herself and sit outside the property for hours, watching for any sign of her niece. Melanie never appeared. Those early tips offered the family brief flashes of hope,

• 14:05Kylie Low?

  but none produced a confirmed sighting. Days had already become weeks and then months. Melanie's 15th birthday passed. The leather jacket she'd been promised was never purchased. Her braces appointment came and went. The family continued searching, but the trail leading away from the woods never became any clearer. For nearly three years, little about the investigation appeared publicly. Billy Sue remembers tips continuing to reach the family and police, but none seemed to lead anywhere. She also acknowledges that the family wouldn't necessarily have known every step investigators were taking behind the scenes during that period.

• 14:48Kylie Low?

  But then, in August 1992, an anonymous tip directed police to Walker Pond in Woburn.

• 15:03Kylie Low?

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• 17:13Kylie Low?

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• 17:24Kylie Low?

  According to Beverly Ford's reporting for the Boston Herald, the message was blunt: "Look in Walker Pond. You'll probably find Melanie Melanson in a car." The caller didn't explain how they knew this, identify the vehicle, or provide any other details. But the specificity was enough for Woburn Police and Massachusetts State Police divers to search the pond. The conditions were difficult: thick underwater weeds, limited visibility, and made it hard for divers to move through the water. They didn't find any vehicle containing Melanie or evidence connected to her disappearance. Walker Pond was searched again that November after additional tips pointed investigators back to the same location.

• 18:09Kylie Low?

  Once again, the search ended without Melanie. For Billy Sue, the pond has never been completely eliminated. She believes the divers did what they could with the equipment and conditions they faced in 1992, but she would still like to see Walker Pond examined again using modern technology. The searches at Walker Pond were among the last major developments to receive significant public attention for years. Melanie's case remained open and tips still surfaced, but without a confirmed location, physical evidence, or a witness willing to resolve what happened after the party, the investigation gradually went cold.

• 18:50Kylie Low?

  In May 2009, nearly 20 years after Melanie vanished, Middlesex District Attorney Gary Leoni returned to the place where she was last seen and announced a $5,000 reward for information leading either to the recovery of Melanie's remains or the arrest of whoever was responsible. The money came from the Carol Sunde Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which helped families who didn't have the resources to fund substantial rewards on their own. The location of the announcement was intentional. Leoni stood near the same wooded area where the party had taken place, surrounded by the landscape investigators had been circling since 1989. And his message wasn't aimed at a stranger

• 19:34Kylie Low?

  passing through Woburn that night. Leoni said there were people who had been with Melanie and others who had been told things after she disappeared. Investigators believed someone had carried information for years and could still break the case open. By that point, authorities were no longer speaking publicly as though Melanie might still be alive. They believed she had been killed and that her remains had been concealed. Investigators also told 2020 they had reason to believe more than one person had been involved, not only in hiding Melanie, but possibly in moving her remains or concealing them again sometime later. The renewed attention gave Melanie's family

• 20:19Kylie Low?

  something they hadn't had in a long time: public pressure. News coverage returned. Melanie's photograph appeared again. Her name was spoken outside the family, outside Woburn, and outside the small group of people who had spent years trading rumors and half answers. By September, investigators were back in the woods. John Element reports for The Globe that over two days, September 24th and 25th, 2009, authorities excavated an area near the former General Foods plant, which by then was part of the Kraft Foods property. The land stretched along the Abgejona River, within the same broader section of East Woburn where Melanie had last been seen.

• 21:03Kylie Low?

  The old plant sat on a parcel of roughly 59 acres, leaving investigators with a wide mix of woods, riverbank, and formal industrial ground to consider. According to the 2009-2020 report, the search area was fenced off from the public, deep in the woods and approximately 1,000 feet from where investigators believed Melanie was last seen. Authorities said they were acting on "new information" received only days earlier. Police did not publicly disclose whether anything of evidentiary value was found, but the renewed activity left investigators sounding more optimistic than they had in years. Detective Mike Pandoff said the "recent developments" were encouraging,

• 21:48Kylie Low?

  while prosecutors described the investigation as suddenly "very active" after nearly two decades without a resolution. A little more than a month later, on November 1st, Melanie's family gathered in the parking lot of Woburn Memorial High School for a candlelight vigil. It was the day Melanie should have turned 35. At the vigil that November, then-Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Marian Ryan told Emma Stickgold of The Boston Globe that investigators had received "new, solid leads" and were closer than ever to answers. What followed was a series of increasingly specific searches, built around a troubling possibility: that Melanie's remains had once been concealed

• 22:33Kylie Low?

  somewhere in East Woburn and then possibly moved before investigators ever reached the right place.

• 22:42Kylie Low?

  By 2011, private investigator Michael Garrigan had become one of the key people helping Melanie's family keep the search moving. Garrigan, who ran Advanced and Private Investigations in Woburn, had worked the case without charge for years, helping coordinate volunteers, bring in cadaver dog teams from Connecticut Canine Search and Rescue and other outside specialists when the family needed resources beyond what law enforcement could provide. That November, a volunteer team of 10 people and four search dogs examined three locations: a grassy area near Montvale Avenue and Hill Street, a spot off Washington Street that had already been searched twice,

• 23:24Kylie Low?

  and land near Lindenwood Cemetery in Stonem. Adam Seig reports that three dogs reportedly showed interest at one site. Another area drew even greater attention: a narrow strip of woods and wetlands behind the McDonald's at 333 Montvale Avenue, between the restaurant and property associated with the former Kraft Foods plant. According to the family, this location was consistent with tips suggesting Melanie's remains had been moved after the party. Cadaver dogs showed interest in one particular area, and subsequent soil samples reportedly tested positive for signs of human decomposition.

• 24:07Kylie Low?

  Contemporary reports say the soil samples showed "chemical signs" associated with "human decomposition", suggesting human remains may once have been present there. The testing couldn't identify whose remains they were or establish why none were recovered. For the family, it was the kind of result that brought them closer and left them exactly where they had started. Something had been detected in the soil, but there was still nothing that could be tested against Melanie, nothing that could be buried, and nothing that could finally answer what happened to her. In early 2012, the family began working to bring in Dr. William Bass, the forensic anthropologist

• 24:51Kylie Low?

  who founded the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility, better known as "The Body Farm." The family hoped Bass's team could use decomposition odor analysis to detect chemical signatures left in the environment, even when no remains were visible. In July 2012, attention shifted to the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a large wooded area spanning several communities north of Boston, including Stonem. The search followed new information from a tipster who reportedly became emotional while sharing information they had held for about nine years. According to Garrigan, the tips suggested Melanie's remains had first been placed in Woburn

• 25:35Kylie Low?

  and later moved to the Fells. One account also claimed that one of the boys last known to have been with Melanie was seen in the area after she disappeared. It wasn't the first time the Fells had been mentioned, either. Bruce Coulter reports for the Woburn Advocate that two other tips in the previous months had also directed investigators there. Dozens of volunteers and several cadaver dogs searched 250 acres of the Middlesex Fells in Stonem. Two dogs showed interest in the same general location, but nothing conclusive was found. The following month, searchers returned to the Woburn Woods near the place Melanie was last seen. This was the area where three dogs

• 26:19Kylie Low?

  had previously indicated the possible presence of human remains and where soil testing had reportedly detected signs of decomposition. According to reporting by WBZ 1030 AM Radio, the excavation was supervised by Dr. Anne Marie Myers of Forensic Archaeology Recovery. Archaeologists and anthropologists examined the ground for changes in soil color, texture, and composition that could indicate a grave or the former presence of remains. Kristin Cantu reports for the Woburn Advocate that crews used both hand tools and a backhoe to dig trenches, and then the soil was sifted by hand, not only for human remains, but for anything that might show Melanie had once been there:

• 27:02Kylie Low?

  clothing, jewelry, and other personal items. After two days of digging, nothing connected to Melanie was recovered. The results didn't erase the earlier dog alerts or the reported soil findings. They simply added another possibility the family had to live with: that Melanie may once have been there, but could have been moved before anyone knew where to look. In December of 2012, Massachusetts State Police conducted an aerial search over the former General Foods property. In 2013, Melanie's face appeared on electronic billboards across Massachusetts: another attempt to reach someone whose memory, loyalties, or fear may have changed with time.

• 27:46Kylie Low?

  Then, in August 2015, the search came back to the place that had troubled Melanie's family from the very beginning, for reasons I haven't told you about yet.

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• 28:34Kylie Low?

  Every small town has a local legend. The house no one drives past after dark, or the woods that hold secrets. Every October, I like to add something a little more spooky to my playlist. Stories that blur the line between what's imagined and what might be waiting in the dark. Full Body Chills returns with more strange coincidences, unsettling confessions, and stories where danger may be closer than it seems. Listen to Full Body Chills all October long, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 29:13Kylie Low?

  At the time of Melanie's disappearance, Jimmy Treska lived in a home on Ran Drive, which abuts the wooded area where the party went down that night. I have a map at darkdowneast.com, but the short version is this. Ran Drive ended at the same interconnected stretch of woods, riverbank, and former industrial land that had drawn so many of the searches over the years. So, Treska lived beside the woods where Melanie was last seen, but the family's concern went beyond the address. In October of 1989, Treska lived with his mother and her boyfriend, Jose Tony Rodriguez.

• 29:57Kylie Low?

  Officer Tony Rodriguez. Yeah. Jimmy Treska was living with a member of the Woburn Police Department at the time Melanie disappeared. There's another layer to this, too. Tax records show the address was owned from 1987 through 2000 by another Woburn police officer. Rodriguez and Treska's mother don't appear in the ownership records, suggesting they were tenants, but either way, as of 1989, the property was connected to two members of the department investigating Melanie's disappearance.

• 30:35Speaker 02

  When we finally got detectives involved, when the detectives went to the house as part of their investigation, this officer told them to get off his property and not to come back unless they had a warrant. A fellow police officer and a missing child is involved.

• 30:50Kylie Low?

  I haven't been able to independently verify that through police records, and Rodriguez is no longer alive to respond. But from Melanie's family's perspective, it was an extraordinary reaction. A 14-year-old girl had last been seen in the woods behind that house, and the man allegedly refusing access was himself a police officer. For years, that left the family wondering what might have been searched sooner, what might have been preserved, and whether anyone inside the department had been given more deference than the circumstances justified. By August 2015, though, investigators and volunteers had obtained permission

• 31:35Kylie Low?

  to conduct an extensive search of the property. In fact, tax records I reviewed indicate that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts itself had owned 5 and 7 Ran Drive since 2000, although I haven't established why the search did not occur until 15 years later. Teams from Mission for the Missing and Forensic Archaeology Recovery searched the property and excavated portions of the yard, but they didn't find anything connected to Melanie. By then, the investigation had moved through Walker Pond, riverbanks, industrial property, cemetery land, the Middlesex Fells, the woods behind McDonald's,

• 32:14Kylie Low?

  and finally, the backyard of the home connected to one of the individuals last seen with Melanie. Along the way, dogs had shown interest. Soil testing had reportedly detected signs of decomposition. Tips had pointed repeatedly to the same small section of East Woburn. Yet every search ended the same way. No remains, no clothing, no jewelry. Nothing the family could bring home.

• 32:43Kylie Low?

  Police have long identified James Treska and Eugene Bertini as the last two people known to have been with Melanie that night. Both were teenagers. Both acknowledged being at the party. And each account left Melanie with someone else. The 2009-2020 report gives us the fullest public versions of their stories. Treska said he left the party around 3 o'clock that morning and offered rides to everyone who remained. According to him, Melanie declined because she wanted to stay behind with Bertini. Treska said he drove the others home, then returned to the woods to make sure the fire was out. "People were still there," he said, "and then he went home."

• 33:27Kylie Low?

  Bertini didn't speak directly with 2020. His attorney, Ed McCormick, said Melanie was alive when Bertini left, and that at least one other person, possibly more, remained at the party. Both versions leave a gap. Treska placed Melanie with Bertini, Bertini's attorney placed her with someone else. Neither account conclusively establishes who actually saw Melanie last. When the Middlesex District Attorney's Office renewed the investigation in 2009, the district attorney at the time described the two men as "sometimes cooperative" and "sometimes not so cooperative." Authorities still stopped short of publicly calling either man a suspect.

• 34:11Kylie Low?

  During the renewed investigation, prosecutors convened a grand jury and called witnesses connected to the case, including Treska. Grand jury proceedings are secret, so what he said under oath has never been made public, but no indictment followed. Billy Sue told me her family has interacted with both men over the years, most recently through a Facebook comment thread. No matter the setting, she says those exchanges have brought them no closer to Melanie.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Denial, they avoid us. It's just the lying. It's just lie, lie, lie.

• 34:49Kylie Low?

  Neither Treska nor Bertini has ever been charged in connection with Melanie's disappearance. Both of them publicly denied involvement in 2009. Treska called the investigation harassment and a "witch hunt", while Bertini's attorney argued that after 20 years without a resolution, investigators may have been focused on the wrong people. But Melanie's family believes at least one of the men came close to saying more.

• 35:19Speaker 02

  It has been confirmed by multiple sources, including law enforcement affiliates, that after the case was reopened in 2009, one of the persons of interest said he would actually cooperate in locating Melanie's remains as part of a plea deal.

• 35:33Kylie Low?

  According to the account relayed to the family, that person accompanied police into a wooded area near the former Kraft Foods property, then stopped cooperating before any remains were found. I haven't been able to independently confirm that account through police records or court filings, and Billy Sue did not identify which person of interest was allegedly involved, but it helps explain why the family believes investigators came close to learning where Melanie had been taken from one of the persons of interest themselves. And listen, we're not talking about two teenagers who simply grew up under a cloud of suspicion based on rumor alone. In the years after Melanie disappeared,

• 36:18Kylie Low?

  both men accumulated arrests and criminal cases involving allegations of violence, domestic abuse, and other serious conduct.

• 36:28Kylie Low?

  According to later appellate records, Eugene Bertini's involvement with the court system began when he was still a child. In November 1986, at age 13, a juvenile court adjudicated him delinquent and placed him on probation. Two months later, the court found that he had violated that probation and committed him to the Department of Youth Services until age 18. The records don't disclose the conduct behind the original juvenile adjudication, and being committed to DYS doesn't necessarily mean Bertini remained inside a locked facility at all times. The department had authority to confine the child, release him under supervision,

• 37:11Kylie Low?

  or change the conditions of that release. Bertini was 16 when Melanie disappeared in October 1989. He was still legally committed to DYS, but the records I reviewed don't establish where he was living, whether he was confined, or what restrictions, if any, were placed on him that night. Within months of Melanie's disappearance, Bertini began accumulating adult charges in Woburn. In March 1990, while he was still 16, he was charged with abandoning a motor vehicle. However, that case was later dismissed. In June 1990, three days after his 17th birthday, he was accused of leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage.

• 37:55Kylie Low?

  He admitted to sufficient facts, and in November, that disposition was converted to a guilty finding. He received one year of probation and a $100 fine. He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct arising from an October 1990 incident and was fined $50. In April 1991, while still in DYS custody, Bertini was charged with operating under the influence. He admitted to sufficient facts and received another year of probation and a 180-day license suspension. In 1996, Bertini was involved in a serious single-car crash on Route 1. News coverage reported that excessive speed and alcohol were believed to be factors.

• 38:39Kylie Low?

  Bertini fractured his neck and his wife suffered extensive injuries. He was charged with operating under the influence, driving to endanger, and driving with a suspended license. By 2009, Bertini was reportedly under house arrest for a probation violation following repeated drunk and driving convictions. His attorney characterized Bertini's record at the time as "alcohol-related" and said it contained no convictions for violent crime, kidnapping, or a sex offense. I want to note that separate news reports do document earlier arrests for domestic abuse and assault and battery in 1997 and 1998, but the sources I reviewed don't establish how those cases were resolved.

• 39:24Kylie Low?

  Interestingly, more than 25 years after the 1990 and 1991 cases, the "leaving the scene of an accident" and "OUI" cases, Bertini tried to vacate those dispositions. He argued that his continuing DYS commitment meant the district court lacked authority over the later cases. The courts rejected his challenges, though, concluding that his DYS status did not invalidate the adult court dispositions under the law then in effect. Now, that's a lot of jargon, but I got kind of obsessed with understanding the strategy behind challenging relatively minor convictions so many years later.

• 40:09Kylie Low?

  The briefs don't explain why he pursued the old cases so aggressively, but success would have erased adult convictions rather than merely reduced their penalties. But the timing of the maneuver feels more significant when you put it into context, because Bertini had since been convicted in a much more "serious" case, giving him at least a possible reason to reduce what remained on his record. On April 25, 2011, two teenage brothers were inside a gas station in Wakefield when an armed man entered. According to police reports, the robber ordered the brothers to the floor, struck one of them in the head with a

• 40:52Kylie Low?

  gun, stole roughly $353 from the station, and ripped a silver necklace from the other teenager's neck. That victim told police a gun had been pressed into his stomach during the robbery. Wakefield detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the gas station and a nearby Dunkin' Donuts. Two officers said they recognized the robber as Eugene Bertini from previous encounters with him. Bertini contacted police and claimed he was in New Hampshire. However, police tracked Bertini to a Saugus motel, where they recovered clothing resembling the robber's, the suspected weapon, the stolen necklace, and approximately $300 hidden inside his shoes.

• 41:36Kylie Low?

  Bertini directed officers to the necklace and acknowledged that the gun, a replica air or BB gun, was the one used in the robbery. A grand jury returned seven indictments against Bertini, including three counts of armed robbery, armed assault with intent to rob, dangerous weapon assault charges, and larceny. Here's where things get interesting. During that case, prosecutors asked a Superior Court judge to order Eugene and his wife Leslie, who was also involved in the crime, to provide DNA samples through cheek swabs. The goal was to compare their profiles with possible biological material recovered from the gun, its magazine, and the stolen necklace.

• 42:21Kylie Low?

  But both of them refused to cooperate voluntarily. They did not want to give their DNA samples.

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• 42:45Speaker 00

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• 43:00Speaker 04

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• 43:06Kylie Low?

  Every small town has a local legend. The house no one drives past after dark, or the woods that hold secrets. Every October, I like to add something a little more spooky to my playlist. Stories that blur the line between what's imagined and what might be waiting in the dark. Full Body Chills returns with more strange coincidences, unsettling confessions, and stories where danger may be closer than it seems. Listen to Full Body Chills all October long, wherever you get your podcasts. Following Bertini and his wife's refusal

• 43:49Kylie Low?

  to voluntarily comply with the order, the judge then authorized investigators to use reasonable restraints to collect the samples. Rather than comply, Bertini challenged the order and carried the fight all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Bertini argued that prosecutors hadn't shown usable DNA existed on the evidence, and that forcing the swab would be unnecessarily intrusive. The Commonwealth, on the other hand, characterized it as a minor, non-invasive procedure likely to produce relevant evidence. Massachusetts' highest court sided with the Commonwealth. The justices concluded that a cheek swab was a relatively minor intrusion and that Bertini could challenge the use of

• 44:34Kylie Low?

  the evidence later if he were convicted. The order remained in place. But one footnote stood out to me. During the appeal, Bertini's attorney suggested that prosecutors might be using the robbery case to obtain his DNA for a separate investigation. The Commonwealth denied that and said the sample could only be used in the robbery prosecution under the court order and laboratory protocols. The court acknowledged that Bertini was apparently considered a possible suspect in another investigation where DNA might be relevant, but it didn't identify that investigation. So we cannot say the court was referring to Melanie's case, but Bertini had

• 45:19Kylie Low?

  already been publicly identified as a "person of interest" in her disappearance by the time of his arrest, and his attorney was expressly worried that investigators wanted his genetic profile for something beyond the robbery. To be clear, fighting a DNA order in that robbery case doesn't establish that Bertini had anything to do with Melanie's disappearance. It also isn't clear from this decision whether the robbery sample was ever entered into a broader DNA database or made legally available to investigators working Melanie's case. Bertini has never been charged with causing Melanie's disappearance. However, if Melanie's remains are recovered and usable biological evidence

• 46:04Kylie Low?

  is present, investigators could seek lawful comparison samples from relevant individuals. Bertini eventually pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges arising from the robbery. Some of those convictions were later modified or dismissed as duplicative or unsupported, but several remained intact. Of the most recent cases I could trace for Bertini, a publicly available New Hampshire arrest log lists him in October 2023 on a felony fentanyl possession charge. A March 2026 booking entry also lists three outside-agency warrants. As for James Treska, he too racked up several charges to his name over the

• 46:49Kylie Low?

  years, both in and out of state. From what my research shows, Treska moved to Florida at some point. Florida arrest logs contain entries for a man with the same name, middle initial, and approximate age. I have not independently confirmed that he is the James Treska connected to Melanie's case, but someone named James Treska was arrested on battery and aggravated battery charges in 1999 and on charges of throwing or shooting a dangerous object into a dwelling or vehicle in 2004. In 2009, he was arrested in Lowell, Massachusetts for operating after revocation, speeding, and on a warrant for assault and battery and assault and

• 47:33Kylie Low?

  battery with a dangerous weapon. That October, while the renewed search for Melanie was unfolding, 2020 filmed with Treska as he was arraigned in Lowell on a domestic abuse charge involving his girlfriend. Treska pleaded not guilty and told the program he had been drinking whiskey before the incident and had blacked out. He acknowledged that his criminal record included earlier assault and battery cases, but characterized them as fights from when he was younger, including one in a McDonald's parking lot. Then he addressed the suspicion surrounding Melanie's case directly. Quote, "Getting drunk and hooting and hollering once in a while doesn't make you a killer," end quote. These records for Eugene Bertini and

• 48:18Kylie Low?

  James Treska are neither complete nor proof of involvement in Melanie's case. But what we do know about James Treska's criminal record after the fall of 1989 adds another difficult layer to the suspicion that has followed him since Melanie disappeared. However, he maintains that he had always cooperated with investigators and would do more if he could. But for Melanie's family, the questions surrounding Treska didn't stop with what he might know. That brings us back to Tony Rodriguez, the Woburn officer living with Treska's mother at the Rand Drive property. Billy Sue says the family was told that detectives attempted to interview

• 49:01Kylie Low?

  Rodriguez while he was dying of cancer.

• 49:05Speaker 02

  Detectives made multiple visits to Rodriguez on his deathbed because we thought that he was a source of the cover-up, looking for a confession or information that he may have, because he ended up passing from cancer. And we were told that they tried to go and speak with him on his deathbed. So to me, that tells me that we are on the right track. Why do they feel this way for one of their own? They know something was wrong. They know that something happened. They can't prove it. I understand that.

• 49:37Kylie Low?

  When the family uses the word "cover up," they aren't alleging that every Woburn officer participated. They question whether Rodriguez could have shielded Treska or received professional deference that delayed scrutiny of the property. I haven't been able to independently verify those reported visits through police records or interviews, and Rodriguez died in 2020. I reached out to the other retired Woburn officer who owned the property back in 1989, but I did not hear back. Woburn Police Department declined to comment for this episode citing the open status of the investigation.

• 50:17Kylie Low?

  No court, law enforcement agency, or public investigation has formally concluded that Rodriguez or anyone else covered up Melanie's disappearance, and no one has been charged with obstructing the case. The suspicion created a lasting fracture between the family and Woburn Police, but Billy Su is careful to distinguish the Department of 1989 from the investigators working Melanie's case now. She supports the current detective and believes today's team wants the same resolution the family has wanted all along: to shake out the right information that brings Melanie home. Billy Su tells me that investigators have continued trying to speak with James Treska

• 51:00Kylie Low?

  and Eugene Bertini over the years. In one more recent instance, the family was told that police attempted to interview one of them while he was incarcerated, but he reportedly refused to talk. I attempted to reach both individuals as part of my reporting for this story, but I didn't hear back from them either. For the record, both men publicly denied involvement when 2020 interviewed them or their representatives in 2009. After more than three decades, the family's theory hasn't grown out of one tip or one search. It comes from the same details repeating over and over: the party, the woods, the conflicting stories, the locations that kept drawing investigators back, and the people

• 51:45Kylie Low?

  who may have heard something afterward. Billy Su believes Melanie died in or near the woods, and that her remains were later moved. What she doesn't know is whether her death was intended.

• 51:59Speaker 02

  I do not feel that somebody went in and the intention was to kill her. In my heart, I don't believe that. Could it have been an accident and then they freaked out? And it's too late now to turn back. And they went follow through with everything that they did? Or it did happen on purpose, which also, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened.

• 52:22Kylie Low?

  What she can accept is the idea that Melanie simply walked away from the party and disappeared through an entirely unrelated act.

• 52:29Speaker 02

  The only other thing that could have happened is that she left the party alone and was kidnapped by a whatever, or murdered or killed by somebody else. But why then are both guys saying she left with the other one? That's where the difference is. If she left alone, then say she went on her own. There's too many coincidences and red flags that would lead me to anything else.

• 52:54Kylie Low?

  Melanie's absence changed Billy Su and shaped the way she raises her own children. Her son is now 14, the same age Melanie was when she disappeared. A photograph of Melanie hangs in Billy Su's home. When her children were old enough to ask who she was, Billy Su told them about the older cousin who babysat her, who loved fashion and music and cheerleading, and she told them what happened. She explained why she needs her own kids to check in, why she tracks their locations, and why knowing who they were with matters so much. Over the years, many of the people who first searched for Melanie have died without knowing what happened.

• 53:36Kylie Low?

  Billy Su's father died in 2001 after spending years trying to find Melanie. Melanie's mother died in a fire. Melanie's father, grandparents, and brother are also gone.

• 53:48Speaker 02

  The more and more this happens, that is what is igniting me, to find her for them because they put in so much time and effort for 35 years. That's exhausting.

• 54:00Kylie Low?

  The family's first goal isn't prosecution. It's to bring Melanie home and give her a proper burial. Billy Su has imagined what that day will feel like.

• 54:12Speaker 02

  I think it's gonna be relief. I think it's just gonna be, even thinking about it is, I think, bringing part of that emotion that it would be like. I think it would be a sense of relief, validation, and of course, the sadness is gonna start all over again. You're gonna go right to day one. When you finally get to that point of closure, I think you're still gonna have that moment of reliving exactly how this started.

• 54:40Kylie Low?

  Billy Su and her family believe that someone knows what happened in the woods. Maybe there was chatter the next week at school. Maybe somebody close to the person or person's responsible was on the receiving end of an admission over the years. Maybe those witnesses were frightened. Maybe they were threatened. Maybe they convinced themselves it was too late to speak. Her message to anyone who has waited all these years is simple.

• 55:07Speaker 02

  We're not gonna be upset for people that we've tried to get information from for all this time that come forward now. We're not gonna be upset because to me, that's gonna be the best possible scenario, that they came forward and they wanted to help us, even if it is 35 years later. You will not hear us say, "I can't believe it took them 35 years to come forward." You won't hear that out of my mouth. It's never too late.

• 55:34Kylie Low?

  And to whoever is responsible, Billy Su's message is far less forgiving.

• 55:42Speaker 02

  We're not going away. This is gonna be in your face somehow. You're gonna be thinking about this every single day and not just in October. We are dogs with a bone. It is not going anywhere at all. It's just gonna get worse.

• 55:59Kylie Low?

  Someone knows what happened to Melanie Melanson. If fear, loyalty, or uncertainty kept you silent before, circumstances have changed. Her family is not asking you to solve the entire case. They are asking you to share what you know. Please contact Detective Mark Rafi at the Woburn Police Department at 781-933-1212 extension 4547. You can also email [email protected]. The Middlesex District Attorney's Cold Case Unit can be reached at 781-897-6600.

• 56:42Kylie Low?

  Melanie's family has also created a fully anonymous online tip portal at melonymelanson.com. The form does not require your name, phone number, or email address, and the family says the site does not log the IP addresses of people who submit tips. It is not too late to bring Melanie home. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case at darkdowneast.com. Be sure to follow the show on Instagram, @darkdowneast.

• 57:25Kylie Low?

  This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Low, and this is Dark Down East. Dark Down East is a production of Kylie Media and AudioChuck. I think Chuck would approve.

• 57:52Speaker 05

  If anyone wanted to commit a murder, up here would be the greatest place in the world to hide the body. But soon they'll find it.

• 58:06Speaker 06

  He acted friendly. He talked friendly. He sounded friendly.

• 58:10Speaker 03

  They all knew that I did the scary boogie stuff, and they said, "Maybe she'll find out where this girl is."

• 58:17Speaker 07

  I saw him, Violet. Backhanded her. Pow! Listen to The Devil's Quarry, Season Two, in the Bone Valley feed, on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.