IL IL - Rachel Mellon Skemp, 13, Bolingbrook, 31 Jan 1996

[scriptgirl]

We all know who did it. It's a no brainer.

 

[lindamichelle1]

Not buying his story for a second. How convenient she goes missing the one day she's alone with him.
I wonder why she rang her grandmother?
I also like others believe the dog walk was to hopefully get a neighbour to give him a alibi if they happened to see him.
Did he have a car? She has to be around the area for him to get back in time to walk the dog. He has just hidden her well.

 

[scriptgirl]

What I want to know is how the hell the mother kept custody of her other kids-wasn't their dad Rachel's dad? Is Rachel's mom still married to that creep?

 

[Bit of hope]

So sorry that justice never came and Rachel's remains still not found. Here is her "tree" in September 2018. خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

 

[theshadow45]

Rachel has been missing for 24 years today.

 

[ChuckMaureen]

I believe if there wasn't a history of Rachel having run away from home previous to her eventually having gone missing the circumstantial case against the stepfather would have been stronger and the grand jury would have had better footing to recommend arrest.

 

[damsel]

That is the real question: Where is the body? Did the stepfather drive anywhere that day? I think he would have to transport the body.

I also think the stepfather is a strong candidate and from what i've been reading January 31st was a Wednesday, which also happens to be the day of the local garbage collection so it is possible she was whisked away in the garbage and no one was any the wiser but the problem i have with that theory is that 1: a family of 5 generate a lot of garbage so he would have had to take a lot of it out of the bin before placing her in there and 2: im not sure about garbage trucks there but my local garbage trucks (in australia) are fitted with scales on the claw that lifts the bin and if they detect a weight of over 70kg the driver is notified and they refuse to take your rubbish because it will damage the claw and at 13 she would have made up half of that weight alone

I saw another theory about him dumping her in the nearby ponds but i believe they would have been frozen that time of year so it doesnt seem likely

 

[velociraptor]

It is strange to me how the stuff she wrote in her diary about him is not enough to put him on trial. I feel like others have been convicted for less

 

[PommyMommy]

NOV 27, 2020
17 Missing In Will County: One Joliet Case Dates To 1957 | Joliet, IL Patch
[...]

"Rachel disappeared from her home on a frigid January 31, 1996. She was home from school sick and was home. There has not been a trace of her since that fateful day," NamUs states. In 2015, Bolingbrook Patch produced an article reporting that Rachel stayed home from school with a sore throat that day and was alone with her unemployed stepfather, Vince Mellon. The first time anyone realized Rachel was not ill in her room was when her mother, Amy Mellon, arrived home from work that evening and went to get her daughter for dinner.

The stepfather told the police he last saw Rachel about 2:30 p.m., just before he took the family dog out for a walk. The dog got loose, he told the law, and ran off after a rabbit. Vince Mellon, 48, made an effort to catch the German shepherd but gave up and went home. Later in the day, a real estate appraiser in the area on business stopped by the house and returned the dog, Vince Mellon told the cops.

Anyone with information about Rachel Mellon's disappearance is asked to call the Bolingbrook Police Department at 630-226-0600.

In the years between Rachel disappearing and Vince Mellon and his wife leaving town, he has been arrested on charges of theft, battery, drunken driving and domestic battery. Image via NamUs

[...]

 

[Sunrisenow]

Rachel Mellon's disappearance from Bolingbrook home remains unsolved 25 years later

Twenty-five years ago this Sunday, a Bolingbrook teenager vanished without a trace.

No one has ever been charged in the disappearance of Rachel Mellon - and she's never been found.


As that sad anniversary approaches, Rachel's father talked to the I-Team about one of Chicago's most inexplicable crime mysteries and how it began on a bitter cold day, Jan. 31, 1996.

Jeff Skemp said he would like to see justice for his daughter in the form of an arrest and conviction for Rachel's abductor and likely killer. He said his daughter lives only in his heart now.

 

[Al Ka]

FB page run by her biological father - Help Find Rachel Marie Mellon Skemp

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Twenty five years ago Sunday, a Bolingbrook teen disappeared from her home. A quarter-century later, police continue to investigate, and Crime Stoppers of Bolingbrook is also offering a reward of $10,000 to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and charges against those involved in her disappearance.

Rachel Mellon was 13 years old when she vanished on Jan. 31, 1996, after staying home from school with a sore throat and was alone with her unemployed stepfather, Vince Mellon. The first time anyone realized Rachel was not still in her room was when her mother, Amy Mellon, arrived home from work that evening and went to get her daughter for dinner.

Vince told police that Rachel went to take a nap and was discovered missing by a younger sibling about an hour later, Bolingbrook Police Commander Anthony Columbus told Patch.

"Detectives continue to review reports and crime scene evidence to provide any additional leads," Columbus said. "Evidence in the case has been preserved and is evaluated regularly to determine whether new advancements in forensic capabilities will assist with the investigation."

"The case is still active and the Bolingbrook Police Department continues to keep the disappearance of Rachel Mellon at the forefront and still strives for a resolution in the case," Columbus said. "Rachel has not been forgotten by the community or the department."

While her case remains unsolved, Rachel's absence is sorely felt by all those who loved her. On a page dedicated to Rachel, her best friend wrote:

"This is a horrible experience that I have personal experience that I am still going through. My best friend has been missing since January 31st, 1996 and there hasn't been many clues or leads. I have learned that friends are very important to a person and you shouldn't take advantage of the time you have with them. They could be here one day and gone the next. I have also dealt with this tragedy by taking it day by day. "

Rachel's father Jeff Skemp said he wanted to organize a special service commemorating the 25th anniversary of her disappearance, but that plan was shelved due to the pandemic.

"I wanted to have a service to first of all celebrate Rachel's life. She was so full of joy and also had a deep contemplative nature about her. She also possessed a wisdom beyond her years. This and so much else needs to be celebrated!!" Skemp wrote in a Facebook post. "I also want to do a call to action in her name. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time with Rachel when she was growing up but after listening to her friends talk about her I realize what a big heart she had. She really cared about the world. I believe that she would be on the front line today fighting for social and racial justice."
25 Years Later Girl With 'Big Heart' Rachel Mellon Still Missing

 

[Gloomy Bear]

This is close to home for me and it's so tragic because we all know it's glaringly obvious who did it and when they did it. The mystery is the how and the where. Sometimes between 10:45am-3:30pm, something happened and she was hidden somewhere. That's not a lot of time. There's a chance she's still not far from home.

I also want to address some questions that were posted in this thread a few pages back, years ago. Her dad did not "let her mother take the daughter halfway across the country." Rachel was born and raised in the Chicago area. She has always lived here. It was her father who moved to Texas after the divorce. Rachel sometimes visited him. Last time she was in Texas, she told her uncle she'd rather live in Texas than in Illinois. So both her biological parents were active in her life. After she went missing, her father moved back to Illinois to help find her. He remains in Illinois to this day, just in case. And he has been the ONLY immediate family member to keep her name in the media and to try to find her. While the rest of her "family" goes on acting like she never existed and do not cooperate with police. So let's straighten out those facts.

 

[Noirdame79]

The stepfather did it. No doubt in my mind. Poor girl. Horrible mother for choosing a man over her daughter.

 

[theshadow45]

Bumping, yesterday was Rachel’s birthday.

 

[theshadow45]

Rachel has been missing for 26 years today.

 

[theshadow45]

Today is Rachel’s birthday.

 

[Yoki]

Rachel Marie Mellon Skemp was born on October 13th, 1982 to parents Amy and Jeff Skemp in Melrose Park, Illinois. At the age of 3, her parents divorced; her mother remained living in Bolingbrook, Illinois while her father relocated to Dallas, Texas. In 1985, Amy (age 26) began a relationship with a man by the name of Vincent Mellon (age 19). Vince moved in with Amy and Rachel and together the couple had two children: Jason in 1988 and Ashley in 1990.

Rachel was a bubbly and bright young girl, always smiling in spite of her unstable home life. In 1990, Vince pushed Amy down a flight of stairs during an argument, prompting her to file a restraining order with the police. She later dropped the order and reconciled. The police were periodically called to their home for domestic violence, and there was one instance where Vince angrily threatened both Amy and Rachel. In the spring of 1995, Rachel ran away from home, citing that she was afraid that she would be blamed for something that her siblings did. She slept outside of one of her friends' house and the next day called her step-grandparents to take her home. In the summer of 1995, Rachel went to spend one month with her father Jeff in Dallas, Texas. While there, she begged her Uncle to help her move to Texas, believing that she would be better off in the custody of her father than with her mother. Rachel returned to Bolingbrook later that summer. The last day that Jeff heard from his daughter Rachel was on December 25th, 1995.

By the fall of 1995, Rachel was a cheerful and smart 7th grader at B.J. Ward Middle School where she'd been an honor student. She was popular at school, described as being jubilant, joyful and with an amazing sense of humor. Rachel had a best friend, Carrie, whom she remained close to until the time of her disappearance. She was passionate about recycling and the environment and had taken up an interest in music, dancing and singing. She babysat children in the neighborhood and aspired to one day become a teacher.

On January 30th, 1996, a day before her disappearance, Rachel was seen crying by her locker, which was extremely uncharacteristic of the usual upbeat and happy teen. She told her friends that she had been feeling unwell and had a problem which she would "take care of" herself.

The following day, January 31st 1996, was a day of strange circumstances. 13 year old Rachel decided to stay home from school that day due to a sore throat. Accompanying her at home was her unemployed stepfather, Vince, and their German Shepard, Duke. January 31st was a particularly frigid day; -20 degrees Fahrenheit and snowy with gusty high winds. At 10:45am, Rachel, wearing a pink sweatshirt with yellow pants and red slippers, phoned her paternal grandmother Lucy Skemp to thank her for the Christmas gifts she'd sent. Lucy stated that the phone call lasted about 5 minutes and towards the end of the phone call Rachel got very quiet. Her grandmother asked, “Is he there?” referring to Vincent, and Rachel replied, “Yes,” before stating she had to go. According to Vince, after the phone call ended he and Rachel played Nintendo for roughly an hour or so before she returned to her bedroom to take a nap. He states that the last time he saw her she was in her bed "wrapped in a blue blanket".

At 2:30pm, with Rachel still napping, Vince claims that he, during a -20 degree blizzard, took the family dog Duke out for a walk. He left the front door unlocked. During the 30 minute walk, Vince claims that Duke slipped out of his collar and began chasing a rabbit in a nearby field. Vince then left the dog, believing that he'd find his way back to the family residence, and returned home at roughly 3:00pm. He claims that he did not check on Rachel when he returned home. At 3:15pm, Rachel's younger half-sibling Ashley returned home from school, noticing that Rachel was not home. A real estate agent who saw Duke running up and down the street recognized that the dog had belonged to the Mellon-Skemp residence and returned the dog between 4:30pm and 5:00pm. It was not until 5:00pm when Amy and her son Jason got home that the Bolingbrook police were called.

When the police arrived hours later and searched Rachel's room they were stunned to discover that her coat, shoes, wallet, purse and Walkman were all still in her room during such a brutally cold snowstorm. Her blue blanket that she'd slept in was missing as well as the two pillows she had on her bed. Police checked the door and found no signs of forced entry. They questioned Vince about the multiple scratches and cuts that were on his arm, to which he replied that he was doing car work earlier during the day. An extensive search of the area was done on ground, air and water using geothermal images and drones, but still no sign of Rachel turned up. Her bank account had been untouched and the airports were checked to make sure that she hadn't ran away to Dallas to be with her father. Still, no sign of Rachel.

A notable item that was uncovered during the police raid was Rachel's diary which contained a haunting entry from August of 1995 in which she described how her stepfather Vince came into her room and began kissing her and touching her inappropriately in order to warn her about "how predators behave" and what characteristics she should look out for to be safe. They also uncovered an out of print book which deals with father-daughter incest as well as a steak knife stashed underneath Rachel's pillow.

At 6:00pm, Rachel's 13 year old best friend Carrie along with 4 other friends trekked around the neighborhood in the cold, wet snow calling out for Rachel. They spent an hour outside with their flashlights checking the local park and going up and down the streets until it had became completely dark outside. Carrie states that at that point they had all huddled together and began crying, realizing that there was no sign of their friend. Jeff Skemp, Rachel's father, had received a telephone call from his father stating that Rachel had gone missing from her home. Jeff quit his job in Dallas and moved to Bolingbrook Illinois, hoping to aid in the search of his daughter. When he went to the Mellon-Skemp residence he went into Rachel's room and laid down on her bed in disbelief of what had happened to his daughter. He put on her Walkman and the song "Hand in My Pocket" by Alanis Morrissette had begun playing. He smiled as he remember that Rachel stated during her visit to his house last year that Hand in My Pocket was her favorite song and that she was now listening to alternative rock instead of her usual pop music. Jeff cites that while at the Mellon-Skemp residence, he confronted Vince about what happened to Rachel, to which Vince replied "someone must've snatched her while I was out walking the dog". Jeff has kept the same phone number since 1996 in hopes that one day Rachel will call him. The case had gone ice cold, with no sign of Rachel and no leads or tips in the case.

In January of 2000, four years after Rachel's disappearance, a grand jury obtained a warrant to receive Vince's DNA samples. On January 29th, the cops picked up Vince from his home and held him for nine hours at the Bolingbrook police station. During that time, Vince pled the 5th Amendment when questioned over what happened on the day Rachel disappeared. He then surrendered samples of his blood, saliva and hair as part of a first-degree murder investigation. He also took at least one lie detector test, which he failed. Amy was also questioned by police down at the Bolingbrook police station, but maintained her theory that her husband was innocent and that she believed Rachel was still alive. She passed a lie detector test and since then both Amy and her husband Vince have refused to cooperate with law enforcement regarding Rachel's disappearance. Amy and Vince also refuse to hold any memorials in memory of Rachel and do not make any efforts to bring awareness to her case. The grand jury investigation ended in 2000 without any indictments handed down. Amy, Vince and their two children moved to Tennessee sometime in the mid-2000's. Vince has since then had run-ins with the law, including domestic violence charges for fighting his son as well as drunk driving charges. In May of 2002, the city of Bolingbrook planted a tree and plaque at a park right across the street from Rachel's house in her memory. Bolingbrook PD has stated that they believe without a doubt that Vince killed Rachel, but they cannot prosecute him due to a lack of evidence.

Rachel's father Jeff and her best friend Carrie continue to bring awareness to Rachel's strange disappearance. In 2021 Rachel's friend, Carrie, wrote:

"25 years....I can't wrap my head around it. How is this possible? I feel like I say this every single year, but 25? January 31st will be that long since you just vanished. This date will forever be the day that changed me. It will forever be the day that I have had to learn to live without answers. Live with questions and doubt. Live life raising my own kids without you. I pray so hard constantly for answers. For closure. For the doubt to go away. And for you to be brought justice. Rachel, you are forever in my heart! I can still hear your voice when I see pictures. I can still remember your smile that lit up a room. I can still remember how smart and beautiful you were inside and out! Please take a moment and think about if your best friend just vanished. Or your own daughter, sister or anyone! And to have no answers!?!? NO ONE should have to live with this. SOMEONE KNOWS SOMETHING! Please keep Rachel in your hearts and prayers as we approach yet another anniversary... 25 years. Rachel, I will NEVER give up. Love, Carrie"

The police still consider this an "active case" and are open to any new leads. If you have any information in regards to the January 31st, 1996 disappearance of Rachel Mellon Skemp, please call the Bolingbrook Police Department at (630) 226-0600.


Here's a video of Rachel 11 days before her disappearance on January 20th, 1996 at Carrie's 13th birthday party. This is the last video Rachel has ever been in.

Here's a video of Rachel playing guitar for a end-of-the-semester project for her music class on January 11th, 1996. As noted earlier, she loved music and had been learning how to play the guitar.


WGN News, which features some footage of Vince and Amy Mellon in 1996:


Rachel's father Jeff on ABC News Chicago:


Rachel would've turned 40 on October 13th, 2022.

 

[Yoki]

Picture of Rachel as a toddler with her biological parents Amy and Jeff:

Picture of Vince Mellon, Rachel's stepfather, whom police believe is responsible for her 1996 murder or "disappearance":

Pictures of Rachel:

 

[Aurora90]

bump for a very sad case.