Who was Melinda Davis? Ohio mom found dead in car trunk after warning ‘call police if you don't hear from me’
SHELBY, OHIO: The body of a woman from Shelby has been found in the trunk of her car after she went missing in late February. The horrifying discovery was reportedly made on Sunday night, March 14, at an apartment complex near Galloway, Ohio. An autopsy is underway to determine her cause and manner of death. The Richland County Sheriff's Office said Melinda Kay Davis was last heard on February 25 when she went to the house of her ex-boyfriend, John Mack Jr, 43, to pick up her belongings.
Reports said that while heading towards Mack Jr's house, Davis called one of her friends and told her, “If you don't hear from me, call the police," the court documents stated. The mother’s friend, Paula Littlefield, spoke to News 5 and said, “She said 'I’m almost to Johnny’s house, if you don’t hear from me in a few hours, something may have gone wrong'. I said, 'Oh my gosh, you’ve got me freaked out.'”
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Littlefield was expecting a call from the mom-of-four but she never received it. That’s when she freaked out and drove to Mack Jr’s house. “When I pulled onto the road, I saw a sheriff’s car and Melinda’s niece and I knew, I knew something was wrong,” Littlefield added.
Davis was reported missing by her family when she did not turn up for breakfast with her niece. Before her remains were found, her family and friends joined the police looking for her and also offered a reward of $5,000 for any tip to help find her and her black Volkswagen Jetta.
On March 1, Mack Jr was charged after a search warrant was executed at his home. He has been pressed with a kidnapping charge after blood evidence was found at his Cliffside Drive home, Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon said.
The accused was arraigned in Mansfield Municipal Court on the kidnapping charge on Match 5. He pleaded not guilty. His bond has been set at $1 million. Chances are there that he may face more charges as the investigation progresses. Along with Mack Jr, his 18-year-old son Mack and his son's wife, Alexandria Mack, 18, were also taken into custody on March 4. They are reportedly facing charges related to obstructing justice. Currently, they are out of jail after paying $5,000 cash bond each, online jail records said.
In another incident, a woman from Michigan was found dead inside a car’s trunk after she reportedly vanished post-fight with her boyfriend. Police did not immediately confirm the identity of the woman but believed she was Destini Smothers, a 26-year-old mother from Upstate New York who disappeared in the five boroughs after a birthday party in November 2020. A senior NYPD official said the clothes on the body matched Smothers’ when she went missing. The officers also found her ID with the body.
The shocking discovery was made after sanitation trucks came to pick it up. As per reports, the car had been abandoned with no plates and parked on 134th Avenue for "a while". However, when the truck crew drove off with the vehicle, they noticed a problem with a tire and pulled over on Lefferts Boulevard to check the trunk to look for a new one and that’s when they found the body.