The Murder of 15-Year-Old Melissa Lee| Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE: Bothell, Washington, 1993-- teen girl Melissa Lee goes missing one
night from her own family home. CRAIG MATHESON: The doorjamb was broken. The lock had been forced.
The front room was in disarray. Melissa wasn't home when they got home at 2:00. NANCY GRACE: Melissa's body found the next day.
Detectives immediately worry about a serial perpetrator. BRAD WALVATNE: Who would do something like this?
Is this something that we need to be concerned about? Is there a stranger out there victimizing young girls?
NANCY GRACE: Investigators do all they can, but Melissa's case goes cold. 30 years later, advancements in DNA science
could provide them answers they couldn't find in 1993. CECE MOORE: The DNA really speaks for itself.
It's unbiased. I badly wanted Melissa's mother and her family to have answers. NANCY GRACE: This is the story of the 30-year
search for a vicious killer who preyed on a little girl. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING] Bothell, Washington-- a city that's part of the Seattle Metropolitan area.
Bothell straddles both King and Snohomish Counties near the northeast end of Lake Washington.
BRAD WALVATNE: Snohomish County is the third largest county in Washington State.
It has approximately 2,000 square miles, a population of around 900,000 people. The mid '90s were a real peak in homicides.
Bothell was a small community that stuff like this didn't typically happen in. NANCY GRACE: 1993--
Bothell is also home to Melissa Lee, a 15-year-old girl who lives with mom, Sharon,
her 11-year-old little sister, Kelly, and her mom's boyfriend, Gary. She liked to hang with her friends.
She liked to go to the mall. She liked to help the homeless. She wanted to be a model.
KELLI LITTLEJOHN: She was tall, thin. She was so beautiful. Beautiful. And the way she carried herself--
she carried herself with pride. She was my protector, I guess you could say. She had that mother nature and nurturing inside of her already.
NANCY GRACE: April 14, 1993-- Melissa's mother, Sharon, makes a distressing 911 call.
Melissa's mom, Sharon Lee, called the sheriff's office to report Melissa missing.
Sharon was at work at the Pine Cone Cafe in Linwood, and she got off work around 4:00, 4:30 in the afternoon.
And Sharon and her boyfriend at the time, Gary, decided to stay at the Pine Cone,
and then they ended up going to the Eagles. SARAH JOHNSON: Melissa was home alone that day.
Sharon had seen her that morning when she left for work. CRAIG MATHESON: Sharon had called Melissa
at approximately 9:30 PM. They had a conversation. Melissa had recently broken up with a boyfriend.
Sharon was checking in on Melissa. It was a fairly innocuous conversation. Everything appeared to be OK when they spoke at 9:30.
And then Sharon and Gary got home shortly after 2:00, and that's when they found their house--
the front door had been kicked in. The door jamb was broken. The lock had been forced.
The front room was in disarray. SARAH JOHNSON: A coffee table had been overturned.
A drink had been spilled. And there were a pack of cigarettes and a lighter left in the living room that
didn't belong to anyone else. It was fairly obvious from the descriptions that some sort of struggle had taken place.
Both Sharon and Gary commented that they smelled this sharp chemical odor, and Gary even said
to him it smelled like ether. BRAD WALVATNE: It was very strong, to the point where they
had to open up the doors and the windows in the house to vent the house out. Melissa wasn't home when they got home at 2:00.
SARAH JOHNSON: They didn't call law enforcement right away because Melissa had a history of running away.
And Sharon thought initially, perhaps she had just left. CRAIG MATHESON: The morning of April 14,
Melissa was still not home. They start calling friends. No one had seen Melissa or talked to Melissa
since the following evening. Sharon eventually called law enforcement about 1:45 PM
on April 14, so that Wednesday. NANCY GRACE: Later that same day, there's another distressing 911 call.
SARAH JOHNSON: About 7:30 PM on April 14, two women were walking near the Everett-Mukilteo
border over a bridge called the Edgewater Creek Bridge. They were looking out over the bridge
down into the ravine below, and saw what appeared to be the body of a young woman.
And so the two women went to a nearby convenience store, Soundview Deli, and asked to use the phone.
They called 911, and a few members of the Everett Police department arrived on scene.
SCOT FENTER: Initially, 911s were to be sent to a patrol officer. At that time, that area was in the city of Everett,
so it was not a county jurisdiction. CRAIG MATHESON: Everett police officers were initially
dispatched to confirm or deny whether that in fact was a body at the bottom of the ravine.
SARAH JOHNSON: Sergeant Wayne Meyer appeared at the scene as well. He and one of the patrol officers
went down into the ravine. At this time, they didn't know who the body was. They just knew it was a Jane Doe--
a young white female with strawberry blonde hair who was partially clothed. CRAIG MATHESON: Detectives showed up and started
treating it as a crime scene. SARAH JOHNSON: They took extensive photographs of the young woman's body, and they called the coroner,
the medical examiner. And he arrived on scene and took custody of the body. CRAIG MATHESON: They climbed down to the body
also, and was able to lever her up to the top of the bridge deck. SARAH JOHNSON: There was not much evidence
at the scene itself. The only thing that law enforcement could tell at this time is that she had likely been dropped or tossed
off the side of the bridge. She was wearing a sweatshirt that had been pushed up along with her bra over her breasts,
and her chest was exposed. That suggested to law enforcement that her murder involved an element of sexual abuse.
She was also wearing a pair of pink shorts, a pair of black socks, but no shoes, and no shoes
were found in the area. CRAIG MATHESON: No shoes, no identification, no purse. Just the clothing on her body.
NANCY GRACE: The detectives head back to the station. Their focus-- to identify the young girl.
By that time, the missing juvenile report that Sharon, Melissa's mom, would have gone out to all of the nearby law
enforcement agencies. And the detectives saw this missing girl, Melissa. Her physicals appeared to match the Jane Doe they had found
the previous day, and they made plans to meet with Sharon and Gary at Sharon's place of employment
to see if they, in fact, had found Melissa. SHARON LEE: The police called me at my job
and asked about the clothes. And I went and got a photo, and they said it was her.
Devastating. Totally devastating. KELLI LITTLEJOHN: I went to my grandparents' house,
and I had an aunt that lived there as well with my two cousins. My aunt had got a phone call, and all I heard was, oh my god,
are you serious? And she was like, something happened to your sister. SARAH JOHNSON: The autopsy of Melissa Lee
was completed on April 15 of 1993. And autopsies are incredibly important in homicide
investigations because it gives definitive information to law enforcement about the cause
and the manner of a person's death. CRAIG MATHESON: After they removed the salmon-colored shorts that she was wearing,
they discovered that the underwear that she was wearing had been put on her backwards.
And again, that just solidified in the medical examiner's mind that you're dealing with some sort of sexual assault
at this point. SARAH JOHNSON: Melissa Lee had bruises on her arms and her legs. She had some abrasions on her back
that suggested at some point, she had been drug over a hard surface. She also had what appeared to be a ligature mark on her neck.
The manner of death was homicide. The cause of death was strangulation. NANCY GRACE: A murder investigation now
underway, detectives take a deep dive to learn more about young Melissa Lee's life.
They even attend her funeral. SHARON LEE: It was a beautiful her funeral. She had a lot of friends that went.
KELLI LITTLEJOHN: It looked like there was about 400 people there. The police were there watching, thinking maybe
he would show up-- whoever had killed her. BRAD WALVATNE: At this point, by the time the funeral occurred,
there was a lot of work being done by detectives being put in that place to be able to talk to family and friends,
to maybe find out, hey, do you have any information about who may be involved in this
and why this may have occurred? Hardly ever do you ever really have a true stranger on stranger.
It's typically someone that they know. And so we were trying to, as law enforcement back then,
trying to figure that out. NANCY GRACE: A community in fear. Investigators searching for answers.
What happened to teen girl Melissa Lee in her final moments of life. And was her killer known to her?
That's next on "Bloodline Detectives." Bothell, Washington, April 1993-- 15-year-old Melissa Lee vanishes from her own home
in the middle of the night. Then her body discovered thrown off a bridge. Less than a day later, detectives
returned to her family home searching for evidence. CRAIG MATHESON: Arrangements had been made to go to Sharon's home
and collect any evidence that may be present, take photographs, and get formal statements
from both Sharon and Gary. When the detectives showed up at the house, they discovered, much to their displeasure,
that Sharon had already cleaned up the front room. The mess that Sharon and Gary had found when they had gotten
home at 2:00 AM on April 14 no longer existed in the fashion that they had found it.
There were a couple of items that Sharon had located that she had indicated to law enforcement.
She did not believe that they were Melissa's. She didn't know whose they were. It was a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
So there was very little physical evidence of the struggle that was in place for law enforcement
to actually do anything with. What they did do, though, was they searched Melissa's bedroom.
They were looking for anything that might help point them in the right direction.
SARAH JOHNSON: And in Melissa's room, law enforcement found a calendar, a day planner,
an address book, and various loose papers that Melissa had written various things about her life in.
She had used the day planner and the calendar as sort of a diary. What detectives learned from her day planner
and her calendar is that Melissa was a user of something called the Night Line, which was a dating service back in 1993
where people could connect with strangers anonymously over the phone and get to know them,
strike up friendships and conversations, and maybe even potentially meet people in person.
It was kind of like a pre-internet dating app. Her friend, Krista, who by all accounts
was Melissa's best friend, said that they would do it together when they were having sleepovers.
It was just kind of a funny way to pass the time. SCOT FENTER: Melissa spent a lot of time on the phone,
to the point where Sharon would take the phone and put it in her bedroom. But I don't think Sharon thought that she was on chat line.
CRAIG MATHESON: They started looking at the paperwork that they'd taken from Melissa's home,
specifically the day planner and the calendar and her address book. What they found in her address book
were a number of names with associated phone numbers. SARAH JOHNSON: Greg Renta found the name
Michael and a phone number in Melissa's address book and called it. BRAD WALVATNE: Detectives found out
that Michael was not Michael. Michael was a name that this other individual used when
he would use the Night Line. So detectives went and met with Michael, who ended up being
a gentleman named Alan Dean. SARAH JOHNSON: Detective Renta spoke with Mr. Dean.
He went, and he met Mr. Dean in person at his residence. He showed Mr. Dean a photo of Melissa.
And at that point, Alan Dean said he did recognize Melissa. He said that they'd gone on a couple of dates before,
but they had never had sex. He said he didn't know that she'd died until Detective
Renta informed him. And when detectives asked Alan Dean where he was on April 13 and 14 of 1993,
Mr. Dean didn't have an alibi. He said he couldn't remember where he had been. I think detectives had alarm bells in their heads
at this point, but without anything more, there was nothing they could do. They documented everything that he had told them.
They documented where he lived. But other than that, they couldn't arrest him, and the investigation continued.
NANCY GRACE: Detectives now turn their attention to Melissa's ex-boyfriend. SARAH JOHNSON: Melissa Lee, shortly before her death,
had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with a boy who was the same age as she was,
if not a little bit older. I didn't like him. He tried to keep Melissa away from me.
He was abusive to her, would leave bruises on her. SARAH JOHNSON: The relationship seemed pretty volatile.
They would spend a lot of time together, but also have a lot of lover's quarrels
and break up quite often. There are rumors he was involved in some gang activity.
The night that Melissa went missing, she had had a heated phone call with her boyfriend
where he had told her she was marked. That equaled a hit-- that he had put a hit out on Melissa.
And so there was speculation that he had either murdered Melissa or hired someone else to do it for him.
SHARON LEE: He was abusive physically, mentally. He was hateful. I just thought if it was anybody, it had to be him.
Law enforcement spent a lot of time running down information and leads about Melissa's recently ex-boyfriend.
They investigated the rumors. They spoke to all of Melissa's friends and family.
They spoke to his friends and family. They spoke to him multiple times. And ultimately, they could find no evidence
that he was involved with Melissa's murder in any way. Police rule out Melissa's ex-boyfriend as a prime suspect.
They also began to run out of leads. In 1993, forensic science hardly existed. Even though detectives preserved forensic evidence,
there wasn't much they could do with it. SARAH JOHNSON: All that law enforcement could do
was track down information, interview witnesses, follow up on what individuals had told them, trace evidence,
and forensic science just didn't exist like it does today. At the time, the forensic testing that they could do
was ABO typing for blood. CRAIG MATHESON: Law enforcement for the first five, six months
worked this thing pretty hard. They chased down every lead they got. Nothing really leapt out at them.
Melissa Lee was kidnapped from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office jurisdiction, and then her body was found
in Everett Police jurisdiction. So we had detective units from both agencies trying to work together.
Well, you work different agencies, you can imagine that the communication probably isn't the greatest.
The case was worked. A lot of detectives worked on the case, but ultimately it just went cold.
NANCY GRACE: For now, solving Melissa Lee's murder hits a dead end. As we see next on "Bloodline Detectives," new science could
finally provide a breakthrough. Bothell, Washington, 2001-- detectives reopened the 1993 murder of Melissa Lee.
The 15-year-old girl vanishes from home in the middle of the night. The next day, her body discovered discarded
over the side of a bridge. Now, investigators pinning their hopes on new forensic science.
CRAIG MATHESON: By 2001, the state crime lab was using DNA technology on a fairly regular basis.
When the clothing that Melissa was wearing when her body was found was initially examined in 1993,
the forensic scientists at that time noted the presence of several blood stains on those shorts.
SARAH JOHNSON: A forensic scientist tested some of those blood samples and realized that one of those spots of blood
could not have come from Melissa Lee. The minor contributor to the mixed profile was Melissa Lee,
but the majority contributor was an unknown male person. BRAD WALVATNE: And so that profile
was eventually uploaded into CODIS, which is the Combined DNA Index System. But there was never a hit.
There was never a match. CRAIG MATHESON: Most states and the federal government,
if somebody is convicted of a certain type of crime, they have to give a sample of their DNA.
When that DNA is given to law enforcement, it's uploaded into CODIS so that when there are crimes that occur
after the fact or old crimes, they can compare a forensic sample against known offenders
and to see if they match. The individual who had left that blood stain on Melissa's shorts
was not in the system. But at this point in time, Melissa's ex-boyfriend had been arrested a number of times
and been convicted of felonies. So he was in CODIS. There was no match to TJ, so he is, by 2001, pretty clearly
no longer a primary person of interest because it's not his blood on her shorts.
Nothing much happened with the case until 2016, when her underwear-- the underwear that had been
placed on her body backwards-- had been sent back to the crime lab to be reexamined.
When it was originally examined in 1993, there had been some indication that there
may have been a semen stain on the crotch portion of the underwear. When the forensic scientist re-examined the underwear that
had been on Melissa's body when she had been found, that presumptive test came back positive.
It was pretty clear, I think, to everyone who was looking at this thing, that Melissa Lee
had been sexually assaulted. NANCY GRACE: With no hits from the national DNA data
bank, CODIS, and no new leads, the case isn't reviewed again until 2018. That is when new detectives utilize
a brand new forensic science-- investigative genetic genealogy. CRAIG MATHESON: Forensic genetic genealogy
is when we use a forensic DNA sample from a crime scene, and then compare that DNA profile to DNA profiles that
are in a publicly accessible database of DNA profiles like GEDmatch. And they're looking for DNA genetic relatives.
And then from there, they'll use just standard genealogical methods to work their way back down the family tree
and come to a person of interest who they think might be the individual who left the forensic sample.
And we send that to Parabon NanoLabs, and they use a DNA profile from that. CECE MOORE: Most important is that law
enforcement has a DNA sample remaining from the crime scene. We cannot work with the traditional
STR genetic profiles that law enforcement has used for decades. And so for me to be able to help,
I have to be able to go back to that original biological evidence and reanalyze that from scratch,
using more advanced technology. Detective Jim Scharf reached out to Parabon in October 2018
about Melissa's case, and we received the DNA sample on January 23, 2019. We sent that to our partner lab where it was genotyped.
We quickly processed that and uploaded the SNP file to GEDmatch. I got really pulled into the case.
I was thinking about Melissa's mom and how badly she needed answers and justice.
And so I just kept going. And so I ended up identifying a person of interest in Melissa's murder.
And I did the work pro bono, because I so badly wanted Melissa's mother and her family to have answers.
NANCY GRACE: The results from Parabon NanoLabs are a shocker. The DNA taken from Melissa Lee's underwear
belongs to an original person of interest from 1993. Who is he? That's next on "Bloodline Detectives."
Bothell, Washington, 2019-- the science of genetic genealogy has given investigators the name of a suspect
in the 1993 murder of teen girl Melissa Lee. What's even more surprising is that the suspect
is one of the original persons of interest, all the way back in 1993. BRAD WALVATNE: We received some very exciting news
from Parabon and CeCe Moore. Our potential suspect of that unknown male DNA from Melissa's shorts came back to a man named Alan Edward Dean.
And it was a high probability based on the fact of, at the time of Melissa's murder back in 1993,
Alan Dean was a resident of Snohomish County, and he lived only 3.6 miles away from the Edgewater Creek Bridge.
CRAIG MATHESON: When law enforcement gets a name from Parabon as to a person of interest
based upon genetic genealogy, the first thing they're going to do is go back to the original murder book
and take a look at whether law enforcement had ever had any contact with this individual,
or whether that individual was even named anywhere in the discovery. In this particular case, when the name Alan Dean was given
to them in early 2019, they discovered that not only, in fact, did the name come up,
but law enforcement interviewed Alan Dean on two occasions back in 1993, before they shifted gears and went elsewhere.
CECE MOORE: Whenever I identify a person as a potential person of interest in investigation, I like to do a lot of research
on them and find everything that I can about them. But what I learned about Alan Dean
is he kept a very low profile. He had no social media profiles that I could find,
and there was very little information available about him out there. I found that he had been married a couple of times.
He had a daughter who was now deceased. It appeared one of his parents was still alive,
and he had lived in the Everett, Washington area for a big portion of his life. SARAH JOHNSON: They knew that they needed to do some more
research into who Alan Dean was and to get a DNA sample of his so that they could test
that known sample against all of the evidence in this case. It's best in these cases to not tip off a suspect
that they have been identified as the potential murderer. And so what law enforcement did was they
put Mr. Dean under surveillance around the clock to see if they could obtain a surreptitious DNA
sample from him that they could then use to test against evidence in this case. BRAD WALVATNE: We found out that he was a smoker.
He would come out to his front porch, and he would smoke a cigarette, but he would always retain and keep his cigarette butts with him.
We tried to obtain a DNA reference sample from him through a gum ruse. SARAH JOHNSON: Three undercover detectives posed
as employees of a gum company. They went to Mr. Dean's residence, told him that they were going door to door,
testing out new flavors of their product, and they asked him if he would participate.
He agreed to taste test some of the gum flavors. And the detectives had set up this ruse in a way
where they could present a piece of gum to him, he could chew it, and then he could spit it back into a cup
that the detectives would provide. That would allow the detectives to then seal the used piece of gum and retain it for evidence and DNA testing.
However, even though Mr. Dean would chew the gum, when he was offered the cup to spit
it back into, he declined. He said, you're not here to get my DNA, are you? And then threw away the gum in his private trash can.
Came across as very paranoid. It made them think that perhaps he knew they were on to him.
BRAD WALVATNE: We ended up putting a camera in his cul-de-sac on top of a light pole
to monitor his movements. And one day in April of 2020, we hit the jackpot. A detective was following him as he walked off his property,
smoking a cigarette. And he walked to his mailbox. He was walking back to his home.
He threw his cigarette butt on the roadway, and then he walked away from it, went back into his house.
And the detective was able to swoop in and recover the cigarette butt. SARAH JOHNSON: They tested the cigarette butt very quickly,
and the results were that the DNA on the cigarette butt Alan Dean had dropped matched the stain
on Melissa Lee's shorts. To us, it meant that Alan Dean was Melissa Lee's killer.
NANCY GRACE: The bloodline detectives are sure they finally know who killed young Melissa Lee.
When we return, they must arrest their prime suspect. April 2020, Bothell, Washington-- bloodline
detectives have matched the suspect's DNA from the 1993 murder of Melissa Lee to a man still living in the same area, Alan Dean.
The 15-year-old girl, Melissa, vanishes from her own home in Bothell, her body discovered thrown over a bridge
in a nearby wooded area. Detectives revisit the case on and off for 25 years, but in 2019, scientists at Parabon NanoLabs
create a male DNA profile from a sample found on Melissa's shorts. SARAH JOHNSON: Detective Brad Walvatne of the Snohomish County
Sheriff's Office was the lead investigator at the time that Alan Dean was arrested on July 28 of 2020.
The arrest went off without a hitch. He was taken to the major crimes unit interview room
and interviewed by Detective Walvatne and his partner, Detective Kendra Conley. Anything that we said or asked,
he would just say the same thing over and over again. And it was-- he said-- BRAD WALVATNE: It was a very bizarre statement.
So it became obvious to us that he's not going to talk, so he's basically invoking his right to remain silent.
SARAH JOHNSON: However, the recording was still going. And when the defendant was alone in the room,
immediately after he was told he was being placed under arrest for murder and kidnapping, he said--
SARAH JOHNSON: There was no question he understood why he was being arrested, and he said he was sorry.
But I think more importantly, he looked up at the sky and he said, I'm sorry. And to me, he was talking to Melissa.
SHARON LEE: Detective Walvatne called me first and said, we got him. We didn't know they were doing that all them years.
We had no clue at all. KELLI LITTLEJOHN: What rang the bell in a picture was the name that I knew him by, which was Michael.
He had taken me and my sister to "Fantasia." He ended up picking us up from our house.
I didn't like him. He was weird. Every time I would come back, he would try to make me leave.
Melissa wasn't having it, so she eventually made him take us home. And it was probably about a week, maybe a week and a half
later, I was sent off to my grandparents, but I ended up coming back home the very next day.
There's always that question in the back of your mind-- what if? What if I was there?
What could have happened? Could I have deterred it, or could I be dead too? SARAH JOHNSON: In his home, they found
a number of things that related back to Melissa's murder. One of the things that they found that we ultimately weren't
able to use at trial was a canister of carburetor cleaner, which contained ether and heptane.
At autopsy, a sample of Melissa's blood was taken for toxicology purposes. There were no drugs or alcohol found in her blood,
but there were traces of ethyl ether and heptane. And what was interesting about that is,
at the time of Melissa's murder, Alan Dean was working at Boeing as a mechanic and had access to multiple types of solvents
and mechanical chemicals. NANCY GRACE: Alan Dean appears in court one month after his arrest.
SARAH JOHNSON: When Alan Dean was originally arrested back in July of 2020, he was charged the next month
with first degree murder. However, those nonsensical statements he was making to law enforcement at the time of his interview
continued, and he would make those statements in court. CRAIG MATHESON: They made an initial evaluation
that he doesn't appear to be competent, and we need more time. And the doctors at Western came to the conclusion
that he was gravely disabled, and he was committed civilly. SARAH JOHNSON: After about a year of civil commitment,
the Snohomish County Prosecutor's office received word that Mr. Dean would be released
from his civil commitment at Western State Hospital and would be released back into the community.
His state had improved. And so when the prosecutor's office learned that he would be released,
we made the decision to refile charges. It took a couple of times. Trial did not start until March of 2023.
CRAIG MATHESON: He was pretty stone faced. Yeah, Dean was pretty stone faced the majority of the trial.
KELLI LITTLEJOHN: I wanted to jump on him. I really did. It was a lot of control.
He would try and glance at me and my mom and grin. Even the correctional officers that were standing there
would stand to where he couldn't see us. He would still find ways. I still wanted him to go through that court
and realize you can't get away with everything. You're eventually going to have to face justice.
SHARON LEE: I really wanted to do him harm. I really did. I was scared to death after so many years
that he would be found not guilty. I didn't know that they had such incriminating evidence
against him. And it was just too awesome. CRAIG MATHESON: The jury convicted Alan
Dean in just under three hours. That's really fast. I mean, the testimony was almost two full weeks of court days.
They had had to listen to relatively complicated scientific and forensic material on a case
that was 30 plus years old. And he was guilty as charged. His offender score was a zero, and he got the high end
of the standard range for murder in the first degree, which is about 26.5 years.
KELLI LITTLEJOHN: I wanted to jump for joy, but I couldn't. So all I could do was just be like, yes, because he
got what he deserved. SHARON LEE: I didn't feel closure after they read the verdict.
I had to go up there for the sentencing. I just had to. And then it felt like it was finally over.
I couldn't have asked for more than what they did. They never, ever stopped working on her case.
For 31 years, they worked on her case. BRAD WALVATNE: If we didn't have investigative genealogy, CeCe
Moore, Parabon, this new technique, I think we'd be sitting here today with this case still
being cold and not solved. It's what solved this case. It really did. SHARON LEE: I always wonder how many kids she would have had,
if she would have been married, what her life would have turned out to be, what career choice
she would have made. I wonder about that all the time. All the time. KELLI LITTLEJOHN: I feel like if I let the pain go, I let her go.
And that's not something that I've been able to work through yet. But I know she's at peace.
I believe she is. But I think seeing her family like this, she's not. It's to the point where I can't-- even after 31 years,
I still can't talk about my sister, because the pain overrides everything. To me, she was the perfect person.
I mean, I looked up to her, even though she was my older sister. She was charismatic.
She was prideful. She was joy. She'd light up the room. NANCY GRACE: Alan Dean--
finally convicted for the murder of teen girl Melissa Lee, March 28, 2024. On April 24, when he was sentenced to the maximum term
of 26.5 years as a first offender, he still proclaims his innocence. He says police planted DNA evidence against him.
Now, at age 66, he will no doubt spend the rest of his life where he belongs, behind bars for the brutal murder and sex attack
on a 15-year-old little girl. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here on "Bloodline Detectives."

Can the groundbreaking tool of Investigative Genetic Genealogy solve the tragic murder case of Melissa Lee, which left detectives baffled in Bothell, Washington back in 1993.

Now in its fifth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

Brief Summary

The 1993 murder of Melissa Lee is solved through DNA technology, leading to Alan Dean's arrest and conviction after decades of investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Melissa Lee. In 1993, 15-year-old Melissa Lee goes missing from her home, leading to a chilling investigation.
A Community in Fear. The murder of Melissa Lee sends shockwaves through her small community, raising fears of a serial killer.
New Forensic Science Offers Hope. Advancements in DNA technology reignite the investigation into Melissa Lee's murder after decades of silence.
Genetic Genealogy Breakthrough. In 2019, investigators utilize genetic genealogy to identify a suspect in Melissa Lee's murder.
DNA Match Leads to Arrest. Detectives match DNA from a cigarette butt to Alan Dean, the prime suspect in Melissa Lee's murder.
Trial and Conviction. Alan Dean is convicted of first-degree murder after a trial that spanned over two weeks.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I badly wanted Melissa's mother and her family to have answers.

Cece Moore expresses her desire to help Melissa's family.

1:10WatchJun 22, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.