A Kidnapping Unravels Into A Murder That Haunts Four Decades Later

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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
There's a particular heaviness to stories born in the

(00:02):
early 1980s, a time suspendedbetween old world quiet and the
creeping modern age.
Police departments still reliedon filing cabinets and instinct.
Small towns stayed small evenwhen secrets grew large.
Who killed Michelle Mellanderand why did her story fall into
the cracks of history?
This is human wreckage.
Let's step into 1981.

(01:06):
In the late afternoon, they werejoined by a man who introduced
himself as Don Donovan, known tomost as Panama Red.
The group shared several beersand played some rounds of pool.
By 7 p.m., Vicki mentionedneeding to head home because the
babysitter for their twochildren, five month old
Michelle and five year oldMichael Jr., had to leave.

(01:26):
Panama Red offered Vicky a ridehome, while Michael opted to
stay at the bar.
However, neither Vicki norMichael were ready to call it a
night just yet.
They decided that Vicki would gowith Panama to pick up the
children and then return to thebar together.
They ushered Michelle andMichael Jr.
into Panama's pickup truck, butinstead of heading directly back
to the silver saddle bar, Vickiand Panama made a detour to

(01:50):
another establishment, theTurtle Barn, for a drink.
While they were inside, Michelleand Michael Jr.
remained in the truck.
Upon returning to the vehicle,Michael Jr.
reported that someone hadapparently reached in and taken
a twenty-two caliber rifle thatwas lying on the floor.
However, he later confessed thathe had actually discovered the
weapon, pointed it at a man inthe parking lot, who then

(02:11):
confiscated it.
Panama's anger flared, promptingVicki to flee in fear, leaving
her children behind in thepickup truck.
Panama chased after her andmanaged to persuade her to
return to the vehicle.
Together, they drove back to thesilver saddle, leaving Michelle
and Michael Jr.
in the truck in the parking lotonce more.
Vicki and Panama briefed Michaelabout the rifle theft, and they

(02:33):
collectively agreed to reportthe incident to the police.
Panama drove to the ParkerPolice Department and waited in
the pickup truck with thechildren while Vicky went inside
to report the theft.
However, upon returning outsidewith a police officer, they
discovered that the pickuptruck, along with Panama and the
children, was nowhere to befound.
Vicki suspected that Panama hadreturned to the silver saddle

(02:56):
bar, so she was escorted thereby a police officer, but neither
Panama nor the children were atthe bar.
Vicki and Michael describedPanama as a white man in his
early twenties, around six feettall and weighing around one
hundred and seventy pounds withshoulder length brown hair.
They said to detectives that hewas dressed like a cowboy, and
he had been driving a 1976Chevrolet or Ford pickup truck

(03:19):
with California license plates.
The search for Michelle andMichael commenced promptly.
Michelle's medical condition,which prevented her from
consuming milk without a specialformula, added a critical
dimension to the search efforts.
Detective Ronald Hill emphasizedthe urgency, stating, We need
help finding this girl.
She's not supposed to drinkmilk, and without the special

(03:40):
formula, her condition couldbecome really bad.
At about ten thirty PM thatnight, Michael Jr.
was discovered walking along anisolated road around eleven
miles north of California sixtytwo on the Parker Dam Road.
He was alone and visiblydistressed.
When police were called to thescene, he told them that Panama
had dropped him off and promisedto return shortly, but when he

(04:02):
never returned, he began walkingalong the road.
Despite his evident trauma,Michael Jr.
was unable to provide furtherdetails about the events that
transpired.
However, he did mention thatPanama had been nice and had
acted like a cop.
Additionally, he remembered hissister being frightened and in
tears during the ordeal.
Following the evidentkidnapping, an extensive manhunt

(04:25):
was initiated, mobilizingresources from the Parker
Police, Yuma County Sheriff'sDepartment, Yuma Police,
Colorado River Indian Police,and the FBI.
Despite concerted efforts,detectives found themselves
grappling with the perplexingabduction of Michelle.
Detective Hill remarked, We'restill digging around.
The man apparently was atransient, possibly in town just

(04:46):
two days before it happened.
However, he added that thisinformation hadn't been
substantiated.
They had just heard he was atransient by word of mouth.
Despite extensive efforts,including the thorough search of
the area where Michael was foundwandering, involving forty to
sixty individuals scouring theseventeen mile desert strip, no
significant findings emerged.

(05:07):
The days continued to pass andon august tenth, detectives
announced that they believedMichelle may be dead.
While Panama had told Vicky andMichael his name was Don
Donovan, this had been a fakename.
Detectives couldn't find anybodywith that name, but they heard
from some locals who hadencountered Panama in the days
leading up to the abduction.
Most had met him in a bar, butnone could provide any

(05:30):
information about his identity,where he lived or where he
worked.
That evening in San BernardinoCounty, California, a man was on
his way to the dump at BlackMeadow Landing.
As he approached, somethingabout four to five feet from the
road caught his attention, aninfant's child seat.
However, as he drew closer, aputrid odor assaulted his
senses.

(05:50):
His gaze scanned thesurroundings, and what he saw
next would haunt himindefinitely.
There, amidst the desolation,lay the badly decomposed body of
Michelle.
The examination of Michelle'sbody by the pathologist unveiled
a disturbing narrative.
Among the findings were multipleinjuries, including a fatal
crushing blow to her skull.
However, it was evident thatMichelle had endured a series of

(06:13):
brutalities prior to her death.
The examination revealedspecific details of Michelle's
injuries, painting a grimpicture of the violence she
endured.
A bruise above and to the leftof her eye indicated pressure
from a smooth surface inflictedwhile she was still alive.
Furthermore, Michelle suffered afractured collarbone in two
locations, along with threebroken ribs on her left side.

(06:35):
Additionally, tears wereobserved in the skin around her
left nipple and armpit.
Moreover, her upper left armbore a fracture near the elbow,
suggestive of either blunt forcetrauma or twisting of the arm.
The autopsy revealed even morehorrifying details.
Michelle bore a long incisionstretching from her ribs to her
groin, with her uterus beingremoved through this opening.

(06:56):
Additionally, two smallincisions were found over her
left groin, along with an ovalincision between her legs where
her vagina and anus had beenremoved.
Due to the extensive trauma toMichelle's body and the nature
of the injuries, determiningwhether she had been sexually
assaulted proved impossible.
The missing person investigationtransformed into a murder
investigation, and inmid-August, an arrest was made.

(07:20):
Nineteen year old BrettPensinger was arrested in his
uncle's truck in Midland, Texasafter his family called police
and said he may have been theman involved in the murder.
He matched the description, andthe description of the pickup
truck matched his uncle's pickuptruck, which he had stolen.
When Pensinger was arrested,blood was observed on his pants,
shirt, belt, and boots, butthese were not typed or compared

(07:43):
to his or Michelle's blood.
There was also blood foundinside the pickup truck, but
Pensinger suggested it was hisown.
In September, Pensinger wasextradited to California, where
he was charged with first degreemurder.
His murder trial began on julyseventh, nineteen eighty two,
and his defense attorney, DonaldFed, suggested that his client

(08:03):
was innocent and that Vicky hadkilled her own daughter.
He referred to the delay in herreporting the kidnapping.
He revealed that at the time ofthe murder, Vicki was pregnant
with her third child, despitethe fact she had spent the
entire day drinking.
The defense attorney alsomentioned that neither she nor
Michael worked and had no placeto stay.
However, the prosecutionpresented three inmates who were

(08:26):
incarcerated with Pensingerfollowing his arrest.
These three men testified thathe had admitted to killing
Michelle to them.
One of them, Gary Howard,testified that Pensinger had
driven off with the children atthe police station because the
truck he was driving had beenstolen.
He admitted he had been drinkingall day and shooting Qualud.
According to Howard's account,Pensinger said he drove around

(08:47):
for a while and wasn't sure whatto do, but when Michelle started
crying, he punched her in theribs.
When the crying didn't stop, hethrew her around the car.
Pensinger said that Michael Jr.
was in the vehicle when thishappened and said that when he
pulled over to relieve himself,Michael Jr.
got out of the truck and tookoff running.
Pensinger then said that hetried to have Michelle orally

(09:08):
copulate with him, but when shecouldn't, he cut open her
stomach and cut her privateparts out.
Afterwards, Pensinger admittedto driving Michelle's body to a
dump and disposing of her.
In another confession, however,Pensinger said that a companion
named Paul had assisted in themurder.
He said that Paul had slappedMichelle, threw her out at the
dump, and cut her with a knife.

(09:30):
However, Pensinger lateradmitted that he didn't have an
accomplice.
Pensinger had also told fellowinmates he was going to play a
dummy act to get to Patton StateHospital, where he planned to
claim he had a split personalityand blacked out.
The defense suggested that theinmates were lying, and
presented a woman who testifiedthat she had heard Vicki talking
about borrowing money from a mannamed Panama around a week

(09:52):
before the murder.
Vicki's mother-in-law alsotestified that Vicki didn't
appear to love her daughter,while another witness told the
jury that Vicky was annoyed overher life the day of the murder.
She had allegedly complainedabout her living situation and
was fed up that Michael wouldn'tget a job to support them.
Michael Jr.
testified during the trial,telling the jury that it was

(10:13):
just me, Panama and Michelle,the last time he saw her alive.
He testified that Pensingerdrove him and his sister to a
remote area of the desert wherehe ordered him out of the car
and drove off with Michelle.
However, under crossexamination, Michael Jr.
failed to pick Pensinger out asthe man he knew as Panama.
The jury ultimately found BrettPensinger guilty of the first

(10:35):
degree murder of MichelleMellander.
The same jury that convicted himdeliberated for twelve hours
before deciding that he shouldbe sentenced to death.
The jury foreman, Helen Molles,stated, The man is a danger to
society.
However, that sentence was nevercarried out.
In may twenty nineteen, fiftysix year old Brett Pensinger
died of natural causes on SanQuentin's death row.

(10:57):
In the end, the story ofMichelle Mellander is less about
the violence that took her lifeand more about the shadows she
left behind shadows that stretchacross more than four decades,
long past the yellowed casefiles and fading memories of
1981.
What happened to Michelle isfrozen in time, but the meaning
of it continues to shift,reshaped by every new detail
uncovered, every overlooked cluereconsidered, every voice

(11:21):
willing to speak after years ofsilence.
This has been human wreckage.
Until next time, stay curiousand stay safe.