One Double Jeopardy From Murder

This is one of those stories that sound like a Hollywood movie. It’s something you wouldn’t think could happen in real life. The majority of this story happens in the 1980’s in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the story of Melvin Ignatow. Mel is one of those people who always seem to be happy. He’s outgoing and likeable, never seeming the type to ever get sad. However, he did go through a divorce while his kids were still pretty young in 1973. He was given custody of his kids, so he was taking on the challenge of being that working single father. Not a small responsibility. He was a successful businessman, traveling the world for an Asian import-export firm. He also indulged in major man gifts to himself like a Corvette and a 32 foot speedboat. His lifestyle and charm easily attracted the ladies. Though Mel put on that happy-go-lucky persona at work and while out and about, he was far different while at home. Mel has 3 kids – 2 girls and a boy. His son, Mike, is the youngest of the three. When Mel would come home, the kids would feel dread. Mel is something of a control freak. It’s bad enough that he would immediately head to the kids rooms to inspect them for cleanliness. He’s the type that nitpicks to the point that there’s no pleasing him. It’s ridiculous – the kids aren’t even allowed to use the vacuum. They have to pick things out of the carpet by hand. He torments the kids with intimidation, yelling and calling them terrible names. He never hits them, but his words hit harder than a belt. He’s brutal with his verbal abuse. Soon, though, Mel gets a girlfriend and the kids are hopeful this will take the focus off of them some. The girlfriend’s name is Mary Ann Shore. Mel had met her at work; in fact, it’s that typical story – she’s his secretary. Mel is in his 30’s at this point and Mary Ann is in her 20’s. When Mel would go on business trips, Mary Ann would step up to help watch the kids and take care of his home while he was gone. Mary Ann was on the surface a nice and friendly person, but underneath, she was sneaky and manipulative. Once, she walked into young Mike’s room and told him she found cigarettes in his room. She knows that the kids fear the wrath of Mel, so she uses this to her advantage. She tells him that if he convinces his dad to keep her around, she won’t tell him about Mike’s smoking. Of course Mike agrees and is at Mary Ann’s disposal. She also tried to cause fights between the siblings to cause a rift in the family. Her real goal is to get the kids out of the picture so she has Mel and his money to herself. Mary Ann caused numerous problems in the family dynamic, amping up the tension to get the kids in trouble as much as possible. But, her manipulation didn’t work to give her Mel’s heart. The pair often broke up and got back together constantly. Finally, it seems the two break up for good. Mel often had business trips, like I mentioned before. He would always call a few times while away to check in on the kids and would have someone stay with them. One particular time, though, after both the older girls were off at college and when Mike was 16 and in high school, Mel left for a month long trip. This time there were no calls and no babysitter. He just left some money for groceries and that was it. Mel wasn’t on some overseas work trip, though. He was actually in jail on tax evasion charges. Unbeknownst to Mel at the time, it was Mary Ann who had turned him in for it. A woman scorned and all that… it would be a long time before the family learned of Mel’s tax evasion imprisonment. At 18, Mike was ready to get the hell out of town, so he enlisted in the army and spent 3 years away. When he returned, his dad had a new girlfriend, Brenda. Brenda was quite a bit younger at 36 than the now nearly 50-year-old Mel. But, to Mike, she was a significant upgrade compared to Mary Ann. Brenda was quiet, and kind and the pair seemed head over heels for each other. One evening, Mel asked his whole family to come to his house for a big dinner and announcement. Mike, his two sisters, their grandma and their aunt all arrived for the festivities. Mel springs his big news on the fam, telling them that he had asked Brenda to marry him and that she had said yes. Everyone was so happy for him, but there was something strange. Brenda wasn’t there for the celebration, which everyone found very odd and they all spoke up, asking where she was. Mel said something to the effect of, “she planned to be here, but work just couldn’t let her go yet.” However, she never did show up that evening. Mike gets a call at work from his dad after that night. Mel is sobbing, telling him that Brenda is missing. Mike and the rest of the family hurry over to Mel’s house. Marvin is freaking out in a way none of them have seen before. He’s absolutely beside himself. Mel tells them all that he and Brenda had spent the day together, they went out to dinner and had a nice time. Normally, when Brenda would return to her house, she’d give Mel a call just to let him know she arrived safely. However, that night she didn’t call. So, Mel put in a call to police, wondering if maybe she had an accident on the way home. Police head out on the path Brenda would have driven, and sure enough, they come across her car. It had a flat tire, the car stereo had been stolen and there was some blood in the car, but no Brenda. The blood is tested. It’s not Brenda’s and it’s not Melvin’s. Melvin is just torn apart, desperate to find her, this love of his life. But, time passes with no sign of Brenda. Police think someone had stopped, pretending they were going to help Brenda with her tire, but instead took the stereo and kidnapped Brenda. At this point, the investigation drags on for a year with no good leads. However, police aren’t totally buying what Melvin’s selling. Brenda’s family hadn’t been big fans of Mel and they insisted that police need to probe into Mel’s life more. In the media and to everyone else, Mel came across as innocent and heavily grieving his fiancé. One day, Michael steps out on his porch to grab the newspaper, opens it and is shocked by the headline. Brenda’s body had been found and his father had been arrested for her death. Mike knows his dad is innocent when he hears who had found the body. It was none other than Mel’s ex-girlfriend, Mary Ann. Mary Ann had led police to the body. None of Mel’s relatives or friends were aware of this, but Mel was still very much in contact with Mary Ann. Police, having never let Mel off their radar, had bugged his phone and surveilled his home since Brenda’s disappearance. They overheard a conversation between Mel and Mary Ann when she called him to say she’s really concerned because a developer was going to start digging and she was afraid they would find the body where they had buried it. He had replied with "That place we dug is not shallow.” That information led them to Mary Ann who they then set upon cracking for info. Mike and his sisters knew Mary Ann couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth about her own life, let alone the man who had dumped her, but police didn’t know that. Police felt they had solved the case when Mary Ann told them that Mel had sexually abused, tortured and killed Brenda by suffocating her with chloroform. She claimed they had together dug a grave weeks before the actual murder. She said Mel had driven Brenda’s car to the freeway while she had followed him in another vehicle. Mel had stabbed the tire to flatten it and they drove off leaving Brenda’s car stranded to be found by police, then they went and buried Brenda. She even claimed they had taken photos of the whole thing, but none were found in any searches the cops did. She said they had even scream-tested her own house to make sure it would be the right place to kill Brenda. Well reported to be a chronic liar her entire life, the family and others who knew Mary Ann didn’t put much stock into her story. Mike and his family were sure the killer was actually the very jealous, obsessive Mary Ann herself who rented a house very near where the body was buried. In any case, Melvin was charged with Brenda’s murder and he went to trial. His defense was understandable. He claimed that Mary Ann was the scorned ex who was out to take him down in any way possible. Mary Ann pretty much painted herself as an uncaring, emotionless bish on the stand. She wore a tight miniskirt and giggled a lot during her testimony. Even while telling this tale of utter brutality she supposedly watched Brenda go through, she was flat. No emotion, no tears, just matter of fact. As for the recording where Mel said "That place we dug is not shallow.” He had also said, “Beside that one area right by where that site is does not have any trees by it." Being a recording, it was a little scratchy and it was hard to tell if he had said the word “site” or “safe.” The jury decided he must have said safe and that he was talking about a safe he had buried. Certainly not a crime. The jury didn’t trust her either and came back with a not guilty verdict for Melvin. Mel was so happy to be free and knew wholeheartedly he would be found innocent. As for Mary Ann, she was given a prison sentence of 5 years for evidence tampering, but she wasn’t charged with the murder. She had gotten leniency in order to testify against Melvin, so that’s all they could get her with. As for Brenda’s parents, they both dies before the trial had even begun. According to friends and family it was due to the heartbreak and stress of Brenda’s murder. It may have been a blessing they didn’t have to hear all that Mary Ann had said in court about this brutal murder. Sadly, while he had been in prison, Mel’s family had to sell off all of his possessions, including his house and vehicles to pay for the lawyer fees. So, when Mel gets out, he has to go live with Mike until he can get on his feet again. One night, Mike’s going out with friends. He tells his dad, who’s sitting on the couch watching tv, that he’ll be back later that night. He gets back around 11:30 and finds it weird that his dad isn’t in his usual spot on the couch watching tv. The lights and tv are on, a fresh looking soda is on a table near the couch, but no Mel. Mike thinks maybe his dad is doing laundry in the basement, and just goes to bed. The next morning, Mike gets up and Is a little weirded out to see that everything is still exactly as it was the evening before. The tv is on, the lights are on and that soda is still sitting there, not drunk. Then he notices his phone which is blowing up with messages. Most of them asking if he’s seen the news. The big news was that Melvin had been arrested again. It turns out, the people that bought Mel’s house had decided to do some redecorating. They tore out the carpet and uncovered a hidden air duct. In the air duct, they found a bag of jewelry and undeveloped film. Knowing the stories of the previous owner, they turned the goods into the police. It was exactly everything Mary Ann had told them about. Photos of the entire act with Mel as the main character. It showed the torture and sexual assaults both Mel and Mary Ann inflicted on Brenda. They had tied Brenda to a glass coffee table in Mary Ann’s place and killed her. They had placed her in a plastic bag, folded her clothes in another bag and buried them in a shallow grave they had dug weeks earlier. More than 100 photos of the incident had been found. Though police had the evidence to prove that Mel was Brenda’s murderer, they couldn’t charge him with it again due to the double jeopardy clause. Feds weren’t about to let him get off scot free, though. They charged him with perjury for lying to the court. In court, he stood up and confessed to all he had done, knowing he couldn’t be held liable for it. He admitted he had a used a yellow legal pad and planned out the sequence of how he would perform the murder from sexually abusing her to photographing her. He was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for the perjury charges, but ended up doing less than 7. His son Mike wouldn’t visit him in prison, feeling betrayed and disgusted with the actions of his father. When Mel was released, though, Mike knew he had nowhere else to go and decided to let him stay with him. The two had some heart-to-hearts, and Mel did apologize, but they never reconnected deeply. Eventually, Mel moved into his own place. On September 1, 2008, Mike stopped by his dad’s apartment and rang the doorbell. After trying a few times, with no answer, Mike uses his key to get in. He walks into a scene he wasn’t expecting. There’s broken glass and blood all over which apparently came from a broken glass coffee table. Mel’s walker was knocked over on the floor by the mess. Mike continued through the apartment to find his dad, dead in his bedroom. In a dramatically show of karma, Mel had tripped and fallen through the glass coffee table (remember how Brenda died on a glass coffee table), crawled to his bedroom and died from bleeding out. Incredibly, soon after Mary Ann had been released from jail, she too had died. She died of natural causes. Mike believed his dad killed Brenda because she had broken off the engagement with Melvin. Mel just broke and killed her – he had to be in control. Sources: Wikipedia, allthatsinteresting.com, wlky.com, nydailynews.com, thefamouspeople.com, TV show Evil Lives Here, S10, E4: He got away with murder.