Melinda Karen Creech:1979, Anderson, Indiana

 

   Melinda Karen Creech was born on September 21st, 1965 to Shirley and Roger Creech. She was called “Mindy” by her family and friends. 

  In 1977, when she was around 10 years old, she competed in the Photography competition at the 4-H Fair and won a red ribbon. She was a member of the Shutterbugs Club.

  In 1978, she was on a youth bowling team called the Superstars. They won the Bantam League Championship that year and her and her teammates' names were in the paper on May 14th, 1978. 

  In 1979 Melinda was dealing with a rough situation. Someone said she and a teenage boy were stealing in 1979. It was alleged that they stole a motorcycle from a dealership. So, suddenly she was in pretty big trouble with the law. Melinda also had a very violent homelife, according to her siblings. There was a lot of abuse. She was in a very difficult situation for a young person. 

   Melinda was sent to a juvenile detention facility. She was taken to the  Blake House run by the Bronnenberg Children’s Home on Mounds Road in Madison County on September 5th, 1979. Mounds Road runs east-west in a curve through Anderson’s southeast side. She would have supposedly spent her 14th birthday there. 

   When a police detective went to the juvenile detention facility to question Melinda a couple of months later; she wasn’t there. 

   Had Melinda run away?  Did someone harm her at that facility? Why was no one notified?  The Bronnenberg Children’s Home apparently had not notified Melinda’s parents or the police. No missing persons report was filed. 

   I had imagined that this facility was way out of town in a rural area. But, even at the furthest end of Mounds Road it’s not far from town. It’s also next to Mounds State Park. If she did run away in September she might have gone there. There is a campground with bathrooms, showers and a camp store. There are lots of trails through the woods and around the many mounds and earthworks made by the ancient native Americans known as the Mound Builders.

  Or Melinda might have made her way back into town to her friends or even home to family.

   Allegedly, Melinda had run away before.  Maybe the police thought she’d come back. There is nothing in the papers from 1979 about Melinda. No one seemed alarmed and worried enough to investigate further. A missing 13 year old got far less attention in 1979 than a missing 13 year old today.

  The missing child posters and ads on milk cartons weren’t yet everywhere. The public wasn’t yet paying attention to the problem. The gravity of the situation had not been grasped. Missing kids were just “runaways”. This was victim blaming. As we know,  victim blaming doesn’t solve cases. Victim blaming is one reason why the United States has so many cold cases.  

   As the years went by, Melinda’s siblings would ask about her. Her mother, Shirley, said that her body had been found in New Jersey. They never had a funeral or a memorial service. 

   In 2003, Shirley passed away. Her children began going through her things. They found letters that showed that the body in New Jersey had not been Melinda’s after all.  Why did Shirley tell them the opposite? Did she just want to move on from a tragic event? Some people just try to avoid the pain. Or, was Shirley lying? Did she have something to do with her daughter’s disappearance? 

   Melinda Creech’s siblings were concerned enough to file a missing person’s report. Shirley had been an abusive mother. She had suffered from dementia before her passing. Had she somehow killed Melinda? Had she lied about the body being found? Was the deception just due to her dementia? Maybe she was confused. 

   Had Melinda run away from Bronnenberg Children’s Home? If so, where did she go? Her social security number has never been used. She never contacted any of her siblings. She was only 13. 

   The Blake House and Bronnenberg Children’s Home closed in the 1980’s. The “last orphanage in Madison County” was demolished later. That complicates things as it will be hard to find records and talk to anyone who was also there or may have worked there. 

   Maybe you knew Melinda when she was a kid in Anderson. Maybe you bowled together. Maybe you were in 4-H or went to school together.  Maybe you can help investigators piece together who her friends were and what her life was like.  

  Maybe you have heard a rumor about what happened to her. Small details and even gossip might help. 

   If you have any information at all about Melinda Creech please contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at 765-646-4017.