Family marks 25 years since Woburn teen's disappearance
Melanie Melanson went to party with friends, never returned
Another year has passed, and another billboard along Interstate 93 is being displayed. It still asks the same question more than two decades later: Where is Melanie Melanson?
"Melanie's not missing. Melanie didn't run away. She didn't disappear. Melanie is a murder victim," Melanson's aunt Maryann Masciulli said.
Melanson's aunts said they have believed that since the day their then-14-year-old niece was last seen 25 years ago.
Photos: Mass. Unsolved Mysteries
The high school freshman went to a party with about two dozen other students in a wooded area of Woburn, and she was never seen again.
"I have forgiven the fact that she's been murdered. I'm OK with that. What I cannot forgive is that they've allowed us, for 25 years, to not be able to give her a proper burial," Masciulli said.
There have been no arrests in the case. Multiple searches using cadaver dogs have yielded no results.
Family members believe Melanson's remains have been moved.
They are begging for someone to come forward.
"Just knowing where she is so we can bring her home and give her a proper burial," Melanson's aunt Anne Cail said.
Her family has forgiven the people they believe killed their niece, but they cannot absolve what has happened since.
"But now 25 years later they're adults. They have children of their own. Look at your child, your niece, your nephew, your own child -- one day just gone," Cail said.