The principal focus of this second installment of our series is the ongoing investigation into the perplexing disappearance of Lindsay Wells, who vanished while nine months pregnant on March 27, 1999. In this episode, we engage once more with Melanie Flowers, who provides further insights and reflections on Lindsay’s case, emphasizing the profound implications of her absence not only for her loved ones but also for the community. We delve into the details surrounding the investigation, exploring the troubling lack of interest and action from law enforcement that has perpetuated the mystery for over two decades. As we dissect the elements surrounding Lindsay's disappearance, we are reminded of the importance of keeping her story alive, ensuring that her memory endures and seeking justice for her and her child. Join us as we reflect on the intricacies of this heart-wrenching case and the enduring impact it has had on those who loved her.

The views expressed in this podcast are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my partners. These are my opinions and theories and the people mentioned are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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Welcome to the Dead Life.

Here's world renowned medium Alison Dubois.

Today we're going to hear from Melanie Flowers giving some more of the information of the disappearance of Lindsay.

Well, she was her best friend.

So welcome back to part two to hear us unpack what led up to Lindsay's disappearance.

If you want to watch past and present episodes of the Dead Life, you can follow me on YouTube, please like and subscribe.

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I want to welcome Melanie Flowers to my show.

Melanie, thank you for being here again today.

Are there areas in Simi Valley known for discarding people?

Because often there will be a town or a city where everyone like we have north Scottsdale and not to freak anybody out, but that was never Scottsdale before.

They just called it that so they could like jack up the prices of the houses here.

And that's where we used to call body dumping territory.

Because if somebody disappeared it was going to be up in the desert that, that bodies were just found occasionally up there.

So when they built all those houses and people moved here from other states and my friend was like, I think my house is haunted.

I'm like, I'm sure it is.

That's there's a lot of people up there.

So for you, is there an area like that in Simi Valley?

When I lived there, yeah, there would be the Santa Susana Nold White Face.

And then I'm trying to, okay, that's all on that side of town.

And then that's pretty much it.

That's what Miles had said.

He said, and I'm quoting him, he was saying that David said I dumped that up by White Face Mountain.

And, and there was never any confirmation about it.

It's what Miles said.

Miles always seemed to be trying to point fingers at David and away from John.

And I found that interesting as well.

So the fact that he said he witnessed that but nobody else did, I found odd and suspicious and that that's why he was wearing the wire to try and get him to Admit it again, you know, admit that he is responsible for Lindsay's disappearance.

And that enraged David.

Not just that he would try and do that and trap him in.

In jail, but that he would think he would hurt Lindsay because she's the mother of his child.

And as.

As heinous as David's family was, it did seem like David would protect her if he could.

If somebody was hurting her, he would.

He would definitely step in.

And he just seemed like that kind of guy.

Again, not an upstanding guy and definitely a criminal vibe, but more of a.

More of a drug thief, assault energy rather than somebody who just sees dark energy and murder.

He just didn't have that energy to him.

So he had said that Miles said that, that David had said that, and he witnessed that, and that's what he was trying to get him to admit.

We went into the areas where Little House on the Prairie used to be filmed.

I believe that was one of the areas that we wanted to look at.

I had a woman with me named Laurie Campbell, who's particularly good at working crimes as well.

And she pointed, she drew an area, and we found that area that she had been drawing.

And we brought in cadaver dogs to see if they would pick up on any scent.

And we had two cadaver dogs drop on the ground in an area indicating human remains.

This is.

Now, there were two things here that stood out to me.

One is, I think other people have been buried up there.

I think I heard that there was some mafia that used to maybe dump bodies there as well.

But for dogs to pick up on human remains, it wouldn't be 50 years ago.

I would imagine it'd be much sooner for them to pick up on it without a lot of coaxing, because they let the dogs go.

And the dogs just went right to the same spot and laid down.

So there was something there.

We gave the information to the police, and they never dug it up.

And our homicide detective called them multiple times to see if they'd gone there yet, and they had not.

So they didn't seem particularly interested in getting to the body, bottom of who was buried in that area.

My sense was that we've got to look at the backyard of John's home.

That's where I would look.

I think he's lazier than to take it there.

And I think Miles was trying to throw.

He was either trying to throw us off by saying White Face Mountain and just give them something to try and divert attention away from him and John towards David, or she is buried there and he Knew they'd find a body because they put her there.

But it would indicate David and he might have been setting him up.

So this is a.

I just found this case very interesting.

There's a lot of liars involved.

There's a great.

A good bit of covering up and a lot of drug use in the actors at play.

Did the Simi Valley police ever contact you?

Yes, I did talk to them.

I told them everything about that morning because I did get.

The interesting thing is too, about a week after Lindsay went missing, I got a text message from her and from her phone and it said, number four, no lettuce, cherry coke.

And that's what we would.

She would always order from Del Taco, her chicken soft tacos.

She couldn't get lettuce because of her braces, which gave me hope because I believed, oh my gosh, she's okay.

But they never looked into it.

They never got back to me.

Nothing.

But I believe they never looked into where that text message came from.

No, nothing.

But I believe it was John because obviously he knew what she ate too, right?

Especially pregnant.

Yeah, probably quite a bit of it.

And I always told them that there was a.

It was kind of like one of those pirate chests from the pirate ships back in the day, but it was at the foot of their bed and it had a lot of her personal belongings and some new baby things that we had just gotten for the baby.

And she.

I remember her telling me probably about two months before all this happened, if I ever go missing, make sure this gets to my mom.

And I remember asking Donna, have you gotten any of Lindsay's thing?

And she had a diary that she would write in about John.

Never got anything.

Nothing.

So there's so many different things.

And it's like they would not listen because Lindsey, she had a bad rap with the police.

You know, she had written a bad fraudulent check.

They just didn't care.

They didn't put any consideration care into this case at all.

They didn't.

I think they were annoyed that we were actually there.

I think you're absolutely right that they just figured it was some low level somebody or other and they weren't going to put the energy into it.

Now I did, you know, there was speculation amongst the investigative group.

I'm sorry, I know that this is hard for you.

It's 25 years bubbling to the surface.

22 and pregnant.

You know, it's like, how do you not care?

Yeah.

And.

And she had a lot of people that loved her, that, that needed her and.

And she is Important, which is why we were there.

We wanted to find justice for Lindsay in this case and her baby and either bring her home safe was, you.

Know, her daughter knowing that her daughter would grow up without a mom.

Right?

Yeah.

I mean, David and Lindsay weren't the best parents, but they were still her parents.

And sometimes parents turn their life around, and she deserved that chance to do that.

And, I mean, you got out of Simi Valley, and I assume you created a beautiful life for yourself, which Lindsay would really want and be so happy for you that you got out.

So, yeah, she mattered to us.

And we did find them to be a little difficult.

But we were wondering if there was a connection between the concrete company plant, which, from what I learned through the investigation that my team did, we thought there was a tie, that either John's dad owned the concrete plant or was higher up in the concrete plant, which would make sense why John had a job there and maybe was able to carry a job or get those materials, you know, so quickly that day.

And was there a connection to the police department between those two entities?

A friendship maybe that bonded them or some kind of connection?

We didn't know.

Again, people weren't talking, and there were a number of John's friends that were just way whacked out on drugs that we just couldn't even have conversations with.

And they were just so far, so far gone.

I talked to a couple of them briefly, and they just couldn't even handle dealing with that this happened.

And they just.

It was a sort of code of silence that we were met with by them.

Donna came out and talked to us.

You know, she wanted to find her daughter.

She was hoping things would turn around for Lindsay and that this baby would be it and still loves her daughter very much.

I haven't talked to Donna since then, so it's been a long time.

But I never forgot Lindsay.

And I wanted to make sure that the pilot that we had filmed never went to air.

And the only thing that bothered me about that is that all of this information, the cadaver dogs hitting on an area for human remains specifically.

And there's only a few dogs in the country that are certified to the level that these dogs were certified.

They were the highest certification as accurate in.

In cadaver recovery and sensing.

So we knew there were human remains there, and we just, the whole time, were met with roadblocks.

And I just wanted people to know this is why there are cases that don't get solved.

Sometimes law enforcement doesn't care.

And there's a lot of good cops out there, but there's some bad ones, too.

And the ones that stand in the way make it hard for everybody to get justice and heal so nothing ever gets resolved.

Sometimes it's because the friends of the perpetrator won't talk.

The family members of the perpetrator won't talk.

I've sat in courtrooms with guys who raped, tortured, and murdered a woman while their mother sits there and cries and says her son's a good boy.

And we have DNA to back up that they raped, tortured, and murdered.

So there are people out there that live in a delusional state, that have children that grow up and do bad things.

And I think that with John, his mother seemed to not, in my opinion, get to the bottom of this or care that Lindsay was gone.

And that trunk is another interesting piece.

What happened to the trunk that was at the foot of the bed and, and somebody could talk and clear this up, yet they don't.

And I.

I just find that bothersome.

And even if the body the cadaver dogs hit on wasn't Lindsay, that's somebody's missing family member.

So it still matters.

What's the harm?

We offered to go in, and we know we're not a CSI unit, so the, you know, it has to be done in a particular way to preserve evidence, to go to court.

But if they're never going to dig it up anyway, what difference does it make?

Let us go in.

So it was.

It was very shocking.

I'm hoping that it's since it's been 25 years that there's been a lot of turnover within the community and in law enforcement.

And sometimes people are less scared or worried and more likely to come forward and share what they know.

And I'm really glad that you got to share all of what you have for Lindsay, because if we don't speak up for her, nobody will.

And this is the only way to keep her really on people's minds that she matters.

And that's what today is about, is to let people know who she is and that.

That she and her baby matter, no matter what their circumstances.

Have you heard anything on the streets since she disappeared?

Did you hear some rumors, or do people even talk about it after she disappeared?

Or did everybody just shut their mouths and keep going about their lives?

Everyone just was quiet.

Wow.

Yeah, that's.

I mean, that's amazing and unthinkable.

So if you were to look at someone who was involved in this, the last person to see her, I believe, was John.

Is that right?

John and his Mother.

John and his mother.

And that's something I had asked on the last one.

Where's the mother in all this?

Yeah, you know, where is she?

Because she.

Most mothers care about other people's children.

If I see somebody especially younger than me that's being hurt and I have three daughters and I see somebody's girl, you know, who's 22 years old and somebody's trying to hurt her, I'm probably going to jail because I'm stepping in, you know, that's like that's going to happen.

So that's a maternal instinct that a lot of women have to save and protect.

She again seemed to have dark energy.

I guess apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that her absence speaks louder than words.

Her silence, it's just deafening and.

And then the father.

And so in a perfect world I'd get to send an, an investigator and they'd be subpoenaed and be forced to talk to the investigator and give their testimony and their information, their whereabouts, the luminal to see if there's any blood spatter patterns in the garage, the bathtub, anywhere where this could have taken place or ended up and a sonar in the backyard to look under the concrete that was laid there.

I'm still shocked that the people that I don't know if they were renting the home or had purchased the home, my, in my mind's eye, I'm thinking rented.

But the fact that they didn't want to try and get to the bottom of if Lindsay was under there and they could go about their business living in that house not knowing if There was a 22 year old young woman under there, nine months pregnant with her baby just blows my mind.

Because they wanted $3,000 in order to bring her home.

Because that could have changed everything.

Everything.

Because you know, if in a situation, say John did it and we're just supposing in this hypothesizing, theorizing that John, if he did it and thought he was safe because the concrete had been laid and people in town had been quieted up and code of silence and threatened, you know, people have been threatened and know to keep their mouth shut and all of that had taken place and I'm feeling pretty confident that I'm going to get away with this because the cops aren't pursuing it and I would, I could move and leave her there without moving the body, thinking I got away with it and also knowing I could go back and visit that space, you know, if I wanted to because a Lot of killers will go back to the scene of the crime to relive it to, to sort of possess the person that they took their life, you know, to feel that level of control and power over them.

And if we would have been able to look under that concrete, best case scenario, we would have found her.

Worst case scenario, we could have eliminated the area as that being where she is.

The fact that a concrete slab was poured hours after she actually disappeared is completely mind blowing.

I think you may have stumbled onto the scene of the crime and the fact that you were able to leave.

I'm so glad because I think you came in when everything was just.

The dust was starting to settle and that's why he was so freaked out by your presence.

And this is just my opinion, but I think you spooked him.

And he, he was trying to calm his nerves because he'd been up all night and with everything that had gone on, he was processing.

And when you came in there, I think it really caught him off guard and you, and he had no answer for you as to what happened to her.

So I'm really glad that you got out of there safely and were able to live the life that you've lived.

Lindsay would definitely want that for you.

So those are the people I would definitely want to look at.

If the police were cooperative or interested at all, I would hope they would do their own investigation.

And I know lie detectors aren't admissible in court, but they could be very good indicators on who you're wasting your time talking to and who you need to go more in depth examining and, and finding alibis for.

And this just to me seems so obvious in nature of a case.

First, when I, when I was picking up that he was capable of doing this, John had very dark energy.

David had Keystone Cop criminal energy, just kind of that energy and just very different by nature.

And, and then how everything unfolded.

I just, it, to me, I'd look at John, the mother, the house is the last place she would seen it needs to be turned over.

Blood can still exist 25 years later in the paint and, and behind surfaces that can be found with luminol.

And we have DNA ability capabilities now that we didn't have then to be able to determine quite a bit.

And I'd like to see a new investigative team go in and look at that property because I think that property was absolutely key and it's mind blowing that that didn' so what do you miss the most about Lindsay?

Like what do you want people to remember about her?

She Only got to live 22 years.

She didn't get to make a mark on this world.

She didn't get to figure out who she is or what, you know, what she wanted in life.

She probably would be coming maybe a grandmother soon or, you know, because her daughter would be 25 now or.

No, 20, 20, 28.

She was three and a half when she disappeared, and she disappeared in 99.

So her daughter would be going on like 29 or 30 at this point.

And do you ever go back to Simi Valley, have you run into her daughter?

No, no, I wasn't really close with that side of David's family at all.

I was scared of them all.

Well, they sound pretty scary and honestly it's not hard to figure out how they became the way they became.

Once she meets some of the family members there, it's pretty unnerving.

And I just, I wonder how many people my sense is.

And I got this when I was there at the scene and I told our investigator, I said, multiple people know what happened to her.

I said, this is, this is not something that he's taking to his grave.

I said, this is like as if he's bragged about it or used it maybe, and I'm just theorizing, but use that information to threaten other people.

You know, if you do that, you'll end up like her, like criminals do that.

He had that same energy to me and I just find it unbelievable that he went silent in the last 25 years.

I would be interested in what his criminal activity or did he move, did the family move?

You know, with John, what happened with him?

I think David's family is still doing the same thing they were always doing because they had nothing to run from.

You know, if, if, if John and his family did stay, I would hope that they'd be willing to be re interviewed.

And there's no statue of limitation on murder.

So I do hope that they go back in.

I just wanted you to know I went in with a team of specialists, including forensic specialists, and we just couldn't get anywhere with them.

They, they gave us so little and they tried to, in my view, obstruct us at every turn.

And so if anyone's in Simi Valley and you vote, vote people in that are going to carry out justice for you folks or you're not going to ever have a, have a change of energy in that, in that city.

It was just, it was really a lost place to be.

And this.

This should have been solved on day one.

Like, the cops, as soon as she was reported missing, could have gone in.

And.

And John, no matter what you think of him, he's definitely no genius, and I don't think he got that he was so forensically knowledgeable that he was able to totally lock down the house where there would be no evidence left behind.

I'm sure there was evidence left behind, and I'm just shocked they didn't converge on that house immediately with it being the last place she was seen, because typically, that's what law enforcement will do.

They'll call in their csis and they'll go over it with a fine tooth comb.

They pull the matter that's in the drains of the bathtub to see if there's blood, to see if there's bone, are there teeth?

You know, they look for these things, and it.

It just seems they just didn't.

Not only didn't care, it seemed as though they were trying to keep it from ever being solved, which means they know who did it, and they're maybe trying to cover that up because I can't understand why else they would actually actively try to obstruct David from taking that lie detector test.

And.

And they didn't want him exonerated.

And now 25 years has passed, and maybe a lot of people in Simi Valley don't even know who Lindsay is, but she's a young woman that didn't get to live her life, and she had a baby that never got to get started and never got to take his first steps and will never know his sister, and the sister won't know him.

I mean, whoever killed Lindsay, or some people still speculate, maybe she was abducted.

Maybe the baby was born alive.

Maybe it was adopted out.

Maybe.

Maybe.

Maybe it's like.

Statistically, it's more probable that.

That he got mad at her either.

There wouldn't be much of a fight because Donna said that Lindsay couldn't even walk.

Yeah, because she was not only so pregnant, she was so uncomfortable in the pregnancy, and she couldn't even walk, so she wouldn't have been able to fight back on any level.

And so for him, I'm.

I'm sure the anger was coming from him.

And maybe she told him that after I have the baby, you know, I'm moving back with my mom, or, you know, I'm not.

I'm not gonna be with you anymore.

He could have gotten upset and reacted and.

Or it could have been something that was a little more premeditated.

It.

We won't know until somebody opens their mouth.

So I hope you coming on will encourage some of the people around them that may have moved away to share what they know, because I know that at least several people know exactly what happened to Lindsay and exactly where she is.

So I just want to thank you on behalf of Lindsay and my listeners for coming on and, and talking about her disappearance.

And if you think of anything else, I have a very good friend, Ashley Flowers.

You guys share a last name, and she's the host of Crime Junkie, which is like a million follower true crime podcast.

And I've shared Lindsay's story with her, and I've.

I've shared the video footage that I have from the pilot of all the interviews that we did at that time.

I still have those.

And she was interested in maybe pursuing, looking into Lindsay's case, and she has a much bigger staff than I do, so I will share this with her as well, and maybe this will be something that she puts some energy into.

Fingers crossed on that.

And people are, for whatever reason, really into true crime right now, want to understand the minds of people who commit these kinds of crimes, and they want to understand who the victims are.

And.

But for me, Lindsay was one of very, very few cases that I never saw a resolution to.

And it bothered me because it wasn't because we were doing anything wrong in our investigation.

It was because we were being prevented.

And that was the most frustrating part of all of it.

I would have liked to give Donna a little peace of mind and give her her daughter back, if possible, and.

And give you peace of mind and everyone who ever loved Lindsay.

And she deserves that dignity and.

And that care.

So who knows who will hear this?

And.

And you did a really nice thing for her, coming on and letting her know that you love her and that she matters to you, and.

And if you ever want to come on and.

And talk more about, you know where to find me.

So thank you for being here, Melanie.

I want to thank you on behalf of Lindsay and thank you on behalf of my listeners for coming on my show and talking about something so deeply personal as your best friend's disappearance 25 years ago.

We appreciate you.

Keeping Lindsay's story alive is the most loving thing that we can do for her and her baby.

So if you were a witness or have any details, people have told you, maybe you've heard it in a bar in Simi Valley 15, 25 years ago, whenever, about what happened to her, someone who claims to have witnessed it, please give us a call, give us that information.

Lindsay deserves to have peace, and her loved ones deserve to have her back.

Her and her baby, her little boy, deserve some dignity, respect.

And they deserve the love.

And now's the time.

And thank you to my listeners.

Tune in next Tuesday for a fresh episode of the Dead Life.

I'm Allison Dubois.

This is the Dead Life.

And to all of my believers out there, don't stop believing.

Join us next week on the Dead Life.

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