Hikers found woman’s body 30 years ago, Nevada cops say. Now there’s a suspect
With a political election looming, Jason White has been inundated with texts, phone calls and voicemails.
So when he got a voicemail from a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detective, he “almost didn’t listen to it,” White said at an Oct. 22 news conference.
In doing so, he would have missed “a short conversation that … kind of closed the book on 30 years of not knowing what happened” to his older sister, Melonie White.
White said the detective informed him that 30 years after his sister was found dead, police had identified a suspect in her killing.
Using DNA technology, the suspect was identified as Arthur Joseph Lavery, who died in 2021, Lt. Jason Johansson said at the news conference.
“We will always miss Melonie and believe that the solving of her murder will help bring a measure of peace to her and all of us,” White said.
Hikers find body
As two men were hiking near Gypsum Wash in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area on Aug. 27, 1994, they found a woman’s body and called 911, police said in an Oct. 22 news release.
The woman’s body was abandoned in a dirt turnout area, Johansson said.
“Her body had been placed down in the wash area, and it’s clear that she had been dragged there from what we believe is a car,” Johansson said.
The next day, the Clark County Coroner’s Office identified the woman as 27-year-old Melonie White, according to Johansson.
She moved to the area with her boyfriend in the spring of 1994, Johansson said.
By that summer, Johansson said family wasn’t able to reach her and reported her missing.
A voicemail
Walter White, another of Melonie White’s brothers, was studying at Arizona State University in August 1994, he said at the news conference.
He was in an engineering lab when he missed a call from his brother, Jason White, who left a voicemail on his answering machine “with some news that … he didn’t want to leave as a message.”
“I got a call from the police that my sister’s body had been found,” Jason White said.
Case grows cold
An autopsy showed Melonie White died of strangulation and blunt force trauma, and the coroner ruled her death a homicide, Johansson said.
“(Homicide detectives) tracked down many leads, received many leads, and every one of them was followed up on, but ultimately, their exhausted effort did not identify the suspect involved in the murder of Melonie White,” Johansson said.
Her case went cold.
More than a decade later, cold case detectives again reviewed the case in 2010, Johansson said.
They submitted additional evidence for DNA testing, which resulted in a DNA profile of an unknown man believed to be a suspect, Johansson said.
The profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System; however, there were no hits, according to Johansson.
Genetic genealogy
A decade later, cold case detectives turned their attention to forensic genetic genealogy to try to identify a suspect in Melonie White’s killing, Johansson said.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
Johansson said the department partnered with Othram Inc., a forensic genetic genealogy company, in 2021.
Othram’s scientists created a DNA profile of the unknown suspect, which was then used in a genealogical search, the company said in a news release.
Detectives found potential relatives of the man, who provided DNA for testing and confirmed the suspect to be Lavery, Othram said.
“We have very limited information about Lavery,” Johansson said, adding that Lavery, who was 38 in 1994, grew up in the Las Vegas area and “worked numerous jobs.”
Lavery had no criminal history, aside from a battery arrest in the Las Vegas area, according to Johansson.
He moved to California in the mid 2000s, according to police.
He died in May 2021 due to complications with COVID-19, Johansson said.
So far, Johansson said detectives have not been able to find a direct link between Lavery and Melonie White.
‘Kind heart’
“She was my big sister,” Jason White said, “... and we loved her very much.”
Walter White said his sister had a “super kind heart.
“She was just a really nice person,” Walter White said. “It’s tragic, tragic.”
Melonie White had a son, who’s now 33, Jason White said.
“He’s healthy, and he’s happy,” Jason White said.
When a reporter asked the brothers if they could find solace without a murder conviction and just DNA evidence identifying a suspect, they agreed they could.
“This has been unsolved for 30 years, and now it’s solved,” Jason White said. “I can’t tell you what that means to us.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Hikers found woman’s body 30 years ago, Nevada cops say. Now there’s a suspect."
