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I have seen a lot of twisted murder stories in my 44 years as a journalist, but this one, this one is unbelievable for a number of different reasons.

Imagine a young woman, a wife and mother,

disappears in 1998 on Thanksgiving. The case goes cold, despite some twists and turns,

for 25 years. A relative reaches out to what of our good friends,

Cheryl Mack McCullum, who is a crime scene investigator with the Metro Atlanta PD.

She is also the founder of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, host of Zone 7 podcast, an author of a new book, Just Out, that talks about this entire case called Swans Don't Swim in a

sewer. Mack, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having a seat with me today.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. There's so much to this case and so many twists and turns.

I can't wait to take a look at the book, and I'm sure there's a

movie in it someplace. But tell me, this mother of this victim came to you and explain how

that came about. I was given a speech, and it was a black tie fair, and I saw this woman come in in my peripheral,

and she had on Bermuda shorts, a tank top, and a strong hat.

And, you know, obviously she didn't fit the other guest there,

but she was holding an 8 by 10 frame.

So I thought this has got to be a mother of a missing or murdered child. So when I was done

talking, I went right over to her and she turned the frame around and said, this is my daughter,

Melissa. She was beheaded in Atlanta. Will you help me? And I mean, there was no way to say no to her.

No, you cannot say no to that. I mean, I can't really talk at this event, but will you come to my office next week? And she did. And that's when this story really just kind of took off. She had a binder with her. And, you know, you and I are cut for the same cloth. I started to reach for that binder immediately.

I wanted to get in that case, you know.

And she put her hands on it and said, I know you've already agreed to help me.

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