Episode 145: The Murder of Nereida Melendez
Nettie’s brother Peter Vasquez and Peter’s wife Margie Vasquez holding a portrait of Nettie
Nereida Melendez, affectionately nicknamed “Nettie”, was described as vibrant and a firecracker. She had a ton of friends, thrived at school and despite her being small in size, her presence, voice and 80’s hair were larger than life. Nettie was the baby of the family as the youngest of six children and she and her family grew up in Plumley Village in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Margie, her sister-in-law, describes her as being spicy, especially when Nettie would go into her brother’s closets and take their clothes. The baggy, oversized tops and a mini skirt were the style in the 80’s, and Peter recalls that Nettie would sneak in and borrow his clothes without him knowing, or at least that’s what Nettie was hoping for. He would smell her perfume on the shirts and they would get into a playful fight about it.
As Nettie grew older she was very independent and driven, and one of her many goals was to make something of herself and start a career and a life for herself, especially as a Latina woman. She worked as a secretary after school and on weekends at the cleaning company Sani-Mate Supply Co, and the company trusted her and gave her a lot of responsibility for a 17-year-old and senior in high school. They let her take the company van to use after she got her license, and she was a part of the family there. She was going to attend business classes at Quinsigamond Community College after graduation, and Nettie was beyond excited to graduate from North High School in Worcester and start her adult life.
On June 4th, 1989, the night before her graduation, she was up late baking cookies and brownies for her family for after her graduation ceremony. That graduation weekend, Nettie had taken the cleaning company’s van and had driven down to Hampton Beach. The morning of her graduation on June 5th, she was supposed to drop off the keys to the van and get a ride from her cousin Doris and their friend to the graduation rehearsal. When Doris and their friend showed up, Nettie was gone. As Nettie was fiercely independent, Peter feels that Nettie was being her independent self and didn’t want to wait, so she probably started to walk to the Worcester auditorium where graduation rehearsals were being held. It’s believed that she was walking to the graduation rehearsal when someone she knew offered her a ride. She never made it to the rehearsal.
As the day went on and Nettie didn’t come home to get ready for the graduation ceremony, her family began to worry. When she didn’t show up to graduation and never walked across the stage when her name was called, panic set in.
Police were called at around 8:00pm to report her missing, but Nettie’s family was told she had to be missing for 24 hours before they could put the report in. They also treated the case as though Nettie had run away, which was incredibly frustrating for her family. They searched for her that night before they had to head home.
At around the same time the police were called, a dog walker turned in a leather purse he had found while walking around Bell Pond in Chandler Hill Park. Police did not make the connection between the purse and the missing persons report until the next day, and Nettie’s family was notified. They went out to search for her again around Bell Pond, and Nettie’s brother Bennee called out to Peter that he found something. Peter looked down and saw his shirt under a pile of leaves. When he brushed off the leaves, he saw Nettie’s body.
She had been strangled with the strap of her purse that was still around her neck. There were no signs of assault. The manner in which Nettie’s body was placed and covered in leaves indicated to authorities that she had known her perpetrator.
Nettie was buried in her cap and gown, and as her loved ones were throwing roses into the grave, her classmates threw in their graduation caps as a tribute to her.
Already off to a rocky start, the investigation quickly tapered off after no new leads or evidence emerged in the months after Nettie’s murder. As it had rained the night of Nettie’s murder and into the next day, little evidence could be recovered.
Every year around the anniversary of Nettie’s murder, Margie reaches out to detectives, both to see if there are any updates and to make sure that they don’t forget about Nettie.
Rosa, Nettie’s mom, has never been the same since Nettie’s murder and really struggled with the loss of her youngest child. She and her husband moved from Plumley Village to Virginia shortly after her murder. In an interview with the Worcester Telegram she stated “I wish they would have found someone by now. The police used to talk to us but they don't anymore. Time goes by, but for me it's like it happened yesterday.”
Nettie’s family hope that her case is solved in their lifetime, especially in Nettie’s parent’s lifetimes. In an interview with the Worcester Telegram, Peter stated “I want to send a message to the person who did this. We will have our justice. One day this will come forward. And that day, I hope, is before I’m dead. I strongly feel we will have our justice one day.”
Anyone with any information on the murder of Nereida Melendez is asked to please call the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at (508) 799-8651. You can also be anonymous and text TIPWPD to 274637 (CRIMES).
Image sources:
thisweekinworcester.com - “Episode 9 of Unsolved: Worcester, ‘The Mysterious Murder of Nereida Melendez on Graduation Day’, Now Available
Courtesy of family
telegram.com - “Voices for Nettie”