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Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum

Closing Thoughts For Now, April 2023 | Melissa Wolfenbarger Part 9

Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime

4.7 • 792 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

April 29th, 1999. A skull is found in a trash bag outside Action Glass in Atlanta, Georgia.

Soon after, in different trash bags, various other body parts are found. The remains are identified as the remains of Melissa Wolfenbarger, a 21-year-old married mother of two who is reported missing several months prior.

In a remarkable twist, Melissa’s remains are verified only after her Father is arrested in connection to an unrelated murder.

In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, is joined by the original lead detective on Melissa’s case, Detective Calhoun as they discuss their final thoughts on Melissa’s case. Walt, Sheryl’s husband, reads aloud Carl's final thoughts and reactions to the series on Zone 7. Anyone with information about Melissa’s case is urged to call Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477. 

Show Notes:

 

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  • About the ‘Zone 7’ Host

    Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award-winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, a forensic and crime scene expert for “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” and a CSI for a metro-area Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook, “Cold Case: Pathways to Justice.”

    McCollum is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students, and the criminal justice community. They come together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.

    You can connect and learn more about McCollum’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

    Social Links:

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I was five years old when I learned for the first time what lifelong loyalty truly was.

0:18.2

When my sister Shelley would break bonds with somebody, it was in a heartbeat and it was

0:25.5

for life. If you did something to her or to somebody that she loved in any way, if you wronged them

0:34.2

somehow in her eyes, that was it. She would close that door. Now keep in mind,

0:42.3

she was only six. We're Catholic twins, so she's only 11 months older than me. But, you know,

0:50.1

she was already in first grade, so she was a woman out in the world, so she knew

0:54.6

things that I didn't know.

0:56.4

And that's one thing she would teach me.

0:59.0

She would look me in my face and say, we're never talking to them again.

1:03.6

We're done.

1:05.0

And I would say, okay.

1:07.2

You know, if they hurt one of our older sisters or said something about another member of the family,

1:12.9

that was it forever. Years later, somebody did something to one of our sisters. I don't remember

1:19.7

who. And I remember saying, that's it. I'm done for the rest of my life, I'm not going to fool with that person. And I was

1:29.7

walking around saying, blood is thicker than water, blood is thicker than water, you know. And I

1:34.7

probably wasn't much more than about eight at this time. Now, our dad was not a person that you

1:41.4

would consider a big talker. But when he did say something, it was worth

1:46.6

listening to because he was either very funny, very smart, or very loving, one of those things.

1:55.0

Well, this particular day, as I was stomping around pontificating about how, you know,

2:02.6

we were going to close ranks and not deal with this person anymore.

2:05.4

And blood's thicker than water.

2:07.3

He said to me in his slow, deep South Georgia accent, remember, I ain't blood related to your mama.

...

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