Melanie Richey

Melanie Kaye Richey was a native of Peoria, Illinois, but spent much of her life in South Carolina. She was born to Steven and Debra Richey of Evans and had one sister, Amanda Joy Richey. Her grandparents were Orville and Lorena Hopper of Austin, Indiana and Matty Zellars of Sullivan, Indiana. Melanie was by all accounts a wonderful young girl. She attended the New Christian Covenant Center church in South Carolina, played saxophone in the school band and was even a member of the Future Business Leaders of America club. An article Growing up in danger even cites that she was the type of person who helped a blind student through school halls to class. In preparation for her birthday, on July 11th she began writing invitations to her upcoming 16th birthday party and had plans to take 'glamor' photos at the local mall. She sneaked out of her room after midnight on July 12th to attend a local party that got severely out of hand. Fifteen year old Melanie was tragically murdered in Georgia and her body, found a month later, was buried in South Carolina. Read about the details of her death during the trial and the disposition of the defendants STATE v. KELSEY June 1998 **Warning: Graphic depiction of her death** Her story was featured on Murder At Scary Bridge #228 Synopsis: In the summer of 1994, a group of unsupervised teens were up to no good. Some shenanigans were typical, others were not....like building bombs. A vulnerable young lady had the misfortune of crossing their paths that evening, which had a heartbreaking end. See Melanie K Richey: Obituary.