256 - Melanie Flynn - Part 2

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

History, True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2026

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In part 2 we examine the greater conspiracy surrounding the Vanishing of Melanie Flynn. Lexington Police Officer Bill Canan, who claimed to be using Melanie as a confidential informant for his undercover work in the drug scene is fired from his job for a multitude of reasons related to insubordination. Canan denies any involvement in Melanie’s disappearance or in any illegal activities. However, his partner, Drew Thornton, dies while flying a plane carrying two hundred pounds of cocaine into the United States from Columbia.

In the early 1990’s, former reporter Sally Denton releases a book entitled “The Bluegrass Conspiracy.” The book goes on to expose a massive drug and arm trafficking operation being carried out between South America and the US with local police as well as several federal agents working hand-in-hand with Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel. In addition to trafficking, there are cases of witness intimidation, theft, assault and even murder. Canan is eventually arrested, charged and convicted of cocaine trafficking. During his trial, several witnesses claim he was directly responsible for Melanie’s disappearance and murder.

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Music Courtesy of:

"Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Chasing Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Galactic Rap" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wednesday, September 11, 1985.
0:13.1	A twin-engine Cessna 404 Titan takes off from Columbia, loaded with approximately 200 pounds of cocaine.
0:21.4	The drugs are supplied by Pablo Escobar's Medellian cartel and are meant for delivery
0:26.3	through a corridor which stretches up from the Gulf into Louisiana and further north
0:31.2	through where the central and eastern states meet.
0:34.6	The pilot, Drew Thornton, was unaware that the FBI had been on to his drug smuggling
0:40.0	for a while, and this entire flight was being tracked. This didn't stop him from getting hinky,
0:46.2	however, and as his plane sailed over Georgia, he suddenly realized that the feds were on his tail,
0:52.7	and having previously been popped for flying
0:55.2	nearly half a ton of marijuana into the country, he wasn't looking to get caught again.
1:01.4	In a last-ditch effort to save the product and himself, he began dumping duffel bags full of
1:06.6	coke out of the plane with them soaring down into the Chattahoochee National Forest.
1:12.0	With the autopilot engaged, Thornton had all the time he needed to dump the cargo in an
1:17.1	area where it could later be retrieved. In desperation, he pulled on a parachute and strapped
1:23.1	some cocaine to his own body before diving out himself, leaving the plane to continue onward without
1:29.3	a pilot until it eventually crashed approximately 60 miles away in western North Carolina.
1:36.2	No one can say for sure what was going through Thornton's mind because in within moments of
1:40.9	dropping out of the plane, he discovered that his parachute wasn't functioning
1:44.7	properly, and he continued onward, plummeting thousands of feet until he slammed down
1:50.5	on a random driveway in Nashville, Tennessee. When police arrived at the scene, they found a real
1:56.9	mess. Thornton was mostly unrecognizable. On what remained of his body, police
2:03.5	found a bulletproof vest, a pair of high dollar Gucci shoes, two loaded guns, several knives,
	...

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