GUILTY IL - Melissa Best, 37, Round Lake Park, 15 April 2011

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The Round Lake Park machinist reported her missing to police on Saturday. A day earlier, surveillance video from a local business showed Melissa Best's minivan driving by and then returning a few minutes later after dropping off one of their two children at a friends house nearby. And then, she vanished.

~~snip~~

Her cell phone minutes expired days before she disappeared. And she's made no contact with her family, even though there's a holiday weekend approaching.

Hours before she vanished, police said it appeared to be business as usual for Melissa Best. She took her daughter with her to Wisconsin to shop at a market. They returned home, and she started unloading the groceries.

"She actually put things out to prepare their dinner their night," said Round Lake Park Police Chief George Filenko. "Then her daughter asked her to give her a ride to a friends house, and that's the last we see of her."


http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/120414019.html#ixzz1KGEK2GGv
 
http://narwo.com/archives/1447
Last Friday started out as a normal day for a mother of two teens from Round Lake Park, Illinois. 34 year old, Melissa Best and her teenage daughter went to Wisconsin to go shopping at a Market there. When they came home, they put away their groceries. That is when her daughter asked her to give her a ride to a friend’s house at Rosewood Apartments located at 216 W. Forest Avenue in Round Lake around 1:30 p.m.
 
Investigators have contacted everyone they can think of, including relatives and friends from Zion, where the two high school sweethearts grew up. The Bests have known each other since they were 15.

“We’ve been checking Facebook, and there’s been no activity. We’re into a week now. That’s the unusual part,” Filenko said.

The Bests have been married for 18 years and have lived in Round Lake Park for about five years, he said.
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Snipped from: http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/49...park-mom-left-ingredients-out-for-dinner.html
 
She had money with her, and her vehicle has not been spotted in a week?
This is a very strange disappearance. It almost sounds as though she took off, but she could also have been abducted. Yet her van should have been found, if she was taken against her will, unless someone jumped into her van with her and forced her to drive.

I hope the vehicle info is well-publicized in surrounding states, etc...if it is on the road, LE should spot it. It has been a full week already.
 
I'm from the area, and my guess is that she was @ Woodman's in Kenosha earlier that day. It's right off I-94 and alot of northern Chicagoites shop there due to the selection and prices. But, it sounds like she made it home from there, so that is really irrelevant, other than the fact that it would be odd for a women to go grocery shopping right before she decides to take off.

To me, this sounds like possibly a traffic accident. Likely, she went into one of the lakes out west of the tollway and has yet to be found.
 
fedfan4life said:
I'm from the area, and my guess is that she was @ Woodman's in Kenosha earlier that day. It's right off I-94 and alot of northern Chicagoites shop there due to the selection and prices. But, it sounds like she made it home from there, so that is really irrelevant, other than the fact that it would be odd for a women to go grocery shopping right before she decides to take off.

To me, this sounds like possibly a traffic accident. Likely, she went into one of the lakes out west of the tollway and has yet to be found.
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Wouldn't there be a lot of other cars, wouldn't someone have seen a dramatic accident?
 
If the address I found for the Bests is correct, she lives less than a couple miles from the apartments she was caught on surveillance leaving, so if she headed straight home, it would have only taken her a few minutes to get there, making the accident possibility unlikely. I don't think she would hit any stop lights either, so the chance of a carjacking on the way seems slim. I live a few miles north of all this.
 
stg said:
If the address I found for the Bests is correct, she lives less than a couple miles from the apartments she was caught on surveillance leaving, so if she headed straight home, it would have only taken her a few minutes to get there, making the accident possibility unlikely. I don't think she would hit any stop lights either, so the chance of a carjacking on the way seems slim. I live a few miles north of all this.
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Also, who would carjack her for a 1993 minivan? Carjacking and robbery seems an unlikely motive. Not to mention, after a week, the van would've turned up somewhere abandoned. Which means she either took off on her own, or whoever took her still has the van or disposed of it in a remote location.
 
What am I missing here? Don't you find it weird that the husband comes home and falls asleep without knowing where his wife is? Especially if he saw the ingredients on the counter for dinner? Or the kids? Didn't they wonder by 11 or so where mom was?

Or do my husband and I just keep too close tabs on each other?

I hope Melissa comes home soon!
 
HesterMofet said:
What am I missing here? Don't you find it weird that the husband comes home and falls asleep without knowing where his wife is? Especially if he saw the ingredients on the counter for dinner? Or the kids? Didn't they wonder by 11 or so where mom was?

Or do my husband and I just keep too close tabs on each other?

I hope Melissa comes home soon!
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I thought that was kind of odd too. I'm definitely not suspecting him or anything, but I think it's weird. If he saw that she hadn't been home to make dinner, kids hadn't seen her, etc..I would think he would know something was wrong. Unless this wasn't out of character for her.

According to this article- http://www.suntimes.com/4974182-417...ching-for-missing-round-lake-park-mother.html Melissa has went to stay with relatives/friends before, but always called and let her husband know where she was. It says her husband called police the next day when he realized he hadn't heard from her.

So, even though I still think it's odd, his reasoning makes a tiny bit of sense, I suppose.
 
HesterMofet said:
What am I missing here? Don't you find it weird that the husband comes home and falls asleep without knowing where his wife is? Especially if he saw the ingredients on the counter for dinner? Or the kids? Didn't they wonder by 11 or so where mom was?

Or do my husband and I just keep too close tabs on each other?

I hope Melissa comes home soon!
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Hester... I agree. Odd enough that she didn't have a cell where he could call her. But? Dinner makings out and no wife? Very odd. I wonder if he assumed she needed some ingredient and ran out to the store. But after a while....?
 
'Wouldn't there be a lot of other cars, wouldn't someone have seen a dramatic accident?'

If she stayed in the immediate area, I would say yes. But, and I am thinking like a women who is couped-up in the house quite a bit, especially during the winter and spring in Chicago, she may have decided to catch a movie, or get her eyebrows threaded, or nails done... Now, if she headed east toward Gurnee, then my theory is for sure incorrect. There's just too much traffic. But, if she went north, that is horse country. That is unlikely, though. There's not much up there west of I-94, and besides, she just came from that way earlier in the day.

I am not that familiar w/Fox Lake, so someone else would have to chime in about that area. Last time I was down there, it was alot of open space, but I believe that there has been quite a bit of development recently.

In relation to calling her husband, if she decided to spend some 'me-time' for a few hours, I can see a scenario where she would not necessarily call him.

First thing, however, check the home and cell records. I know that if my husband did not come home for the night, and there was no contact from him, I would be hysterical. My mom and his mom would both be en route immediately. I don't know how long we would wait to call the authorities, though.
 
This case certainly does seem unusual.

So many questions! :waitasec:

Has anyone ever heard of a person in her 30's who doesn't have a cell phone? In that area, just to remember the various numbers instead of having them programmed into the phone would be difficult, since there are two area codes all mixed up there. Also it's complicated about what calls are charged for.

By "no credit card" do they also mean "no debit card"? How does she get cash, go to the bank? Get it from her husband? Why all that inconvenience?

She occasionally spends the night with friends and relatives with no notice except calling home some time in the evening? That's really unusual to me, but maybe it's more common than I know about. Who exactly gave that information to LE? Why does she spend the night elsewhere enough that her not being at home in the evening isn't really noticed? Does she just get to talking until late with friends and relatives or is she purposely getting out of her house?

I just don't get how she can be described as such a homebody who has few outside contacts but also described as someone whose being away from home for an night is not unusual enough to cause concern until the next day.
 
STEADFAST said:
This case certainly does seem unusual.

So many questions! :waitasec:

Has anyone ever heard of a person in her 30's who doesn't have a cell phone? In that area, just to remember the various numbers instead of having them programmed into the phone would be difficult, since there are two area codes all mixed up there. Also it's complicated about what calls are charged for.

By "no credit card" do they also mean "no debit card"? How does she get cash, go to the bank? Get it from her husband? Why all that inconvenience?

She occasionally spends the night with friends and relatives with no notice except calling home some time in the evening? That's really unusual to me, but maybe it's more common than I know about. Who exactly gave that information to LE? Why does she spend the night elsewhere enough that her not being at home in the evening isn't really noticed? Does she just get to talking until late with friends and relatives or is she purposely getting out of her house?

I just don't get how she can be described as such a homebody who has few outside contacts but also described as someone whose being away from home for an night is not unusual enough to cause concern until the next day.
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You are asking all the things I have been thinking.
She's a homebody, but she will stay out overnight.
She brought groceries home, left things out for dinner, but never made dinner. Who did?
And what was left out? Pasta noodles and sauce?
If meat was left out, that would be one thing.
And if she has no debit or credit card, how did she pay for groceries?
Does he hand out cash once a week?
I keep thinking of WS, who disappeared and was found later, maybe at a women's shelter and refused to come home.

ot: As for cell phones, she is in her 30's.
Granted, I didn't have one until about 18 months ago. But my entire family lives within 20 miles of me. After a forest fire very close by, I thought it best if I carried a cell. And I am not in my 30's.
 
I have no debit or credit cards.
I constantly forgot to write down my transactions with the debit card and got into trouble in college with credit cards.

A lot of people are using the dave ramsey cash envelope system as well lately due to the economy so there is some logical explanations...
 
I still have a checking acct although I don't use it often..i pay in cash for my utilities and things of that nature. I don't have any bills I cannot pay in person within a few miles of my home.
 
I thought they said her phone ran out of minutes a few days ago and had not yet been refilled...that would make a little more sense, but still, with teens, you would think you'd keep your phone going.

I don't know what to think...it is too long to be gone if she just wanted some space, yet I don't see how a van can go into a lake, presumably in daylight, and no one sees it happen.
 
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