Melissa Highsmith Part 2: A Delicate Thread Unraveled

Last week, we brought you the first part of Melissa Highsmith’s story. On August 23, 1971, 21-month-old Melissa was abducted by a woman who responded to a classified ad her mother placed in the local newspaper. Or, at least, that’s the story that Melissa’s mother and roommate told police when they reported her missing. Was Melissa really abducted by this woman calling herself Ruth Johnson, or was there more to the story? And that’s just the beginning of the 50-year-old stone-cold mystery we’ve been chipping away at.

UPDATE: In September, the Highsmith family contacted us about covering Melissa Highsmith’s story. We interviewed multiple family members for a two-episode series. We were already aware of possible DNA connections when the episodes aired, but we held that information in confidence at the family’s request. When the Highsmith family notified us of the DNA matches found on a commercial DNA testing website in late October, we connected them with a family member of another missing person we covered this year, Lisa Jo Schiele. You may remember her from the Barb Cotton series. Lisa Jo Schiele is a clinical laboratory scientist and amateur genealogist. We felt that Lisa’s expertise in the area could possibly assist the Highsmith family in finding Melissa. We also notified law enforcement before the episodes aired that one family member had impersonated law enforcement by their own admission to us and that we had a professional due diligence to notify law enforcement in the event this family member attempted to contact any of the then-unknown DNA matches.

Days after our series aired, the news broke that the family believed they had located Melissa. We are always very grateful and happy to learn that a missing person has been found alive and safe, so we were thrilled to see the news that Lisa Jo Schiele had helped the Highsmith family find a woman they believe to be Melissa. The Fort Worth Police Department released the following statement: “The Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) is overjoyed to hear about how the Highsmith’s use of 23andme led them to Melissa. The Fort Worth Police Department will be conducting official DNA testing to confirm Melissa’s identity, and the department will provide an update once the official results have come in. The FWPD Major Case Unit will be working with the Highsmith family to continue the investigation into Melissa’s disappearance. Even though the criminal statute of limitations expired 20 years after Melissa’s 18th birthday, the Fort Worth Police Department is committed to completing this investigation to uncover all of the available information concerning Melissa’s abduction that occurred 51 years ago.” We hope this decades-old cold case will be solved and look forward to what the police investigation reveals about the many questions that remain unanswered. We will wait for confirmation from law enforcement before commenting any further. We will always uphold the confidence of the families who entrust us with information, just as we did in Melissa’s case. We thank you all for continuing to share your treasured and much-loved missing family members with us. We are eternally grateful.

In May of 2023, the Fort Worth Police Department announced that DNA testing confirmed Melissa's identity. Despite the fact that the statute of limitations has expired, they asked that anyone with information please come forward.

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