When a young New Mexico woman decides to enroll in college and turn over a new leaf in life, her family is excited for her fresh start.

Excitement quickly turns to heartbreak when she vanishes unexpectedly in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

Music Thanks for listening to Last Seen Alive.

I'm your host, Wia, crime analyst by day and true crime storyteller by night.

And as always, I'm your co-host, Scott.

Melanie James was last seen alive on April 20th, 2014.

She was 21 years old at the time and lived in Farmington, New Mexico.

Farmington is a city of about 46,000 people located where three separate rivers,

four separate states, and four separate highways meet. You may have heard of the U.S.'s Four Corners area before, where corners of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah all come together.

I have actually been there. I've stood on the little center

plate that connects all four. It's been years, but I have fond memories of going to all the

little vendors there and seeing all of the handmade artifacts. That's an accomplishment. I cannot

claim. I've never been there, but I've heard about it ever since I was a kid.

So, you know, and you can picture it, that's approximately where this is. Three other states are just a

short drive away from Farmington. Historically, the area was home to the ancestral Pueblo people,

and there are a variety of related historical sites in the area open to visitors, including ancient ruins that

are still partially standing despite being nearly 1,000 years old. Melanie wasn't a visitor to

Farmington, though. She'd grown up there, and she had ancestral ties to the southwestern region

that predated even the oldest historical architecture. She was a part of the Comanche and Walker River Paiute tribes.

Some sources such as a New Yorker article state that she had Navajo heritage as well.

Now, Melanie was also one of four children, two girls and two boys, raised by her mom, Lila Mailman.

Throughout Melanie's childhood,

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