'We're Going To Be Her Voice': Family Still Searching For Teen's Killer After 30 Years
AUBURN (CBS) - "She called the house, she said come on over and bake some brownies and cookies because I want to have a graduation party," Margie and Peter Vazquez said inside their Auburn home.
That was the last time Nereida Melendez's older brother, Peter, spoke with his litter sister. It was 30 years ago, the night before her high school graduation.
"You can see all the kids coming up the hill back home in their gowns and we were looking for our sister, she didn't show up," said Peter.
And that was unlike the 17-year-old. Known to her family as "Nettie," the bright eye North High senior had plans for her future.
"She was going to graduate, she was going go to college, she was going to go into business," Peter told WBZ-TV Wednesday.
But Nettie's life was tragically cut short when she was killed on the day of her graduation – June 5th, 1989. She was last seen that morning, dropping off a van at her job.
"One report said someone was supposed to pick her up. The other report said she walked to her rehearsal but she never got to the graduation rehearsal," Peter recalled.
Melendez's pocketbook was found by a dog walker on Worcester's Bell Hill, around the same time her family had reported her missing to police. By the next morning, her own brother found her body in a wooded area behind Bell Pond; under a pile of leaves.
Decades later, newspaper clippings chronicling the murder and cold case are the only paper trail the family has. Investigators told them DNA was recovered but nothing has come of the evidence.
In a statement to WBZ-TV, Worcester Police said "the case remains a high priority and new technologies are continuously being applied to the physical evidence in the case."
On this anniversary, the family says they're still holding out hope.
"What I would say to that person, one day we will have our justice. We have to, I believe in that. And you will be caught," said Peter.
"We're going to be her voice and make sure people are out there listening. This is not going to go unsolved," Margie said.
Anyone with information can send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at (508) 799-8651.