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Crime Junkie
Crime Junkie

MURDERED: Melanie Howell

April 23, 2026 • 23m

Summary

⏱️ 9 min read

Overview

Crime Junkie hosts Ashley Flowers and Britt investigate the 1976 murder of Melanie Howell, a case that was mysteriously marked 'solved' but the killer's name was never shared publicly. Through investigative journalism, they uncover that Paul Bustamante killed both Melanie and another woman, Elizabeth Wolf, using fingerprint evidence that wasn't matched until decades later. The episode reveals how bureaucratic secrecy and technological limitations allowed a killer to go unidentified even after being caught.

The Mystery of a 'Solved' Unsolved Case

The episode begins with an unusual premise: an LAPD cold case detective tells reporters that a 1970s murder case is solved, but refuses to reveal the killer's identity. Even the current detective assigned to the case was never told who committed the crime. This bizarre situation sets Ashley Flowers and her team on a mission to uncover what law enforcement inexplicably kept secret for years.

  • LAPD cold case detective said a 70s murder was solved but wouldn't reveal the killer's name
  • The detective who worked the case when it was solved wouldn't share the killer's identity internally
  • Police departments normally publicize solved cold cases, but not this one
  • The team set out to answer the question the detective couldn't: who killed Melanie Howell
" One of our reporters reached out to an LAPD cold case guy to ask him about an unsolved case from the 70s. And he's like, oh, that case, that case is actually solved. But he couldn't tell us who did it. "

Melanie Howell's Final Days and Brutal Murder

Twenty-two-year-old nursing student Melanie Howell was terrified in the days before her death after spotting a man watching her through her apartment window. Despite staying with her boyfriend for safety, she returned to her apartment on April 23, 1976 to finish packing for a move. Within minutes of arriving, she was brutally attacked by a man who appeared at her door, stabbed 47 times, and left to die with her wrists bound.

  • Two nights before her death, Melanie called her boyfriend terrified about a man watching her through her window
  • Her boyfriend chased a man coming out of bushes but couldn't catch him in the darkness
  • Melanie was two days away from moving into a new apartment when she was killed
  • A neighbor heard calm conversation at Melanie's door around 10am, then the man left and returned minutes later
  • The neighbor heard struggle, screams, glass breaking, and saw a man leaving with a black briefcase
  • Melanie was found fully clothed, wrists bound, stabbed 47 times with defensive wounds on her hand
  • The attacker left a single bloody fingerprint on the inside doorknob
" She called him late at night from her apartment where she lived alone, and she was terrified because there was a man that she caught watching her through her window. "
" There was blood throughout the apartment. But Melanie was in her bedroom, fully clothed, wrists bound, barely alive, bleeding badly from multiple stab wounds. "
" Was this just a random attack? And if so, could there be other victims? "

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