I-Team: What happened to Debbie Melo?
TAUNTON -- Taunton mom Debbie Melo has been missing since June 20, 2000, and her husband was the last person to see her. At this point, her family has given up hope that she is alive but still wants her found and brought back home.
Now, for the first time, detectives working on the case opened their files for the WBZ I-Team and shared that Debbie's husband Luis has never been ruled out as a suspect in her disappearance.
Home video from 1995 shows some of the last happy memories Debbie's family has of the young mom. Five years later she vanished without a trace.
"I do miss her; there's not a day that I don't think of her," said Debbie's sister, Patty White.
Police said it was about four o'clock on June 20th, 2000. Debbie's husband Luis told police after he drove her to a doctor's appointment, the two got into an argument on Route 18 in Weymouth.
"He just said that he dropped her off at the side of the road, they got into an argument, he let her out, he drove down to the end of the street turned around came back -- and that she was gone. That was his story," Patty told the I-Team. "I asked him 'Did you do something to her?' He said 'No, no, no.'"
In 22 years, detectives have not been able to corroborate Luis Melo's story, Lieutenant John Fanning with the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office told the I-Team.
He believes someone did something to Debbie that caused her to not come home, and that person may have told someone else.
Opening the files for the I-Team for the first time, Lt. Fanning said, "We have no evidence that the car even stropped on (Route) 18."
Anyone with information no matter how small, detectives will follow up.
And as for Luis Melo, Detective Lieutenant AnnMarie Robertson with the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney's office said he has not been ruled out as a suspect.
Both Bristol and Norfolk County District Attorney's offices are investigating Debbie's case since she lived in Taunton and her husband said she went missing in Weymouth.
Debbie's family said Luis did not report her disappearance until the next day and failed two lie detector tests. Patty said his behavior has been very suspicious.
A photo of Debbie wearing a blue and white dress may have been what she was wearing that day.
Over the years, police have followed up on every tip and even dug up a yard of a home in Taunton in 2017. Detective Lt. Robertson said they had information her body may have been buried there but found nothing from the dig.
While the couple worked together managing a few Dunkin Donut's stores, Debbie's family said they had a troubled marriage and before she went missing, Debbie said they were getting a divorce.
Steven DeMoura, Debbie's former brother-in-law, said she told him, "He was going to let her stay at the house; she was going to keep the kids. It was just too coincidental that all of a sudden she's missing."
The I-Team tried to talk to Luis and knocked on the door of the Taunton home that he once shared with Debbie. We also tried calling him but he never responded.
Debbie's family said they will never give up hope that she will one day be found. Recently, Debbie's case was put on Massachusetts Unsolved Cases playing cards that are distributed in jails and prisons. Police are hoping they get tips that will finally help solve the mystery and bring Debbie home.
