logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2024
33m 51s

Unsolved Disappearance: Melissa Brannen

Studio 222
About this episode

When a young girl and her mom attend a neighborhood Christmas party in Northern Virginia, they enjoy the festivities—until the girl vanishes. An open window on a cold night suggests that she was abducted, and investigators quickly zero in on a suspect in this episode of Last Seen Alive. 

So, if you know anything about the disappearance of Melissa Brannen, please contact the Fairfax County Police Major Crimes Bureau at (703) 246-7800 

See photos from this episode and check out the sources we used to research it here:  

https://lastseenalivepodcast.com/2024/12/16/unsolved-disappearance-melissa-brannen/

Support LSA and the DNA Doe Project by getting a shirt or hoodie on our store:

https://last-seen-alive.printify.me/products

Up next
Jul 7
Unsolved Disappearance: Patrick Carnes (Revisited Case)
When an elderly World War II veteran and his loyal dog embark on a cross-country road trip, all goes smoothly until they reach The Big Lonely: a remote stretch of highway in the northern Nevada desert suspected to be a hunting ground for serial killers. The unexplained disappeara ... Show More
31m 28s
Jun 30
Unsolved Homicide: Sarah Saganitso
When an Arizona woman fails to return home from her late-night shift at the hospital where she works, her family and friends launch a search and locate her battered body. Her accused killer raises one of the most outrageous defenses ever entertained in criminal court in this epis ... Show More
39m 13s
Jun 23
Unsolved Homicide: Kanika Powell (Revisited Case)
When a young soldier leaves the Army to work as a physics lab security specialist with a top-secret clearance, civilian life turns out to be more dangerous than anything she faced in uniform. After a series of strange events culminates in her being brutally gunned down, the myste ... Show More
36m 39s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2025
The Disappearance of Doreen Vincent (Connecticut)
When a 12-year-old girl disappeared from her home on a summer night in 1988, police took her father’s word that she’d run away just as she had more than once before. But more than 30 years later, there’s still no sign of the missing girl and her father’s story just isn’t adding u ... Show More
35m 23s
May 22
The Disappearance of Iris Brown (Vermont)
From the very beginning of the investigation into the disappearance of Iris Brown, everyone suspected the same person had something to do with it. She left home with the suspect on the night she was last seen alive, the suspect’s behavior in the days following her disappearance r ... Show More
48m 34s
Sep 2024
The Murder of Natalie Scheublin (Massachusetts)
Investigators who first worked the 1971 homicide case of Natalie Scheublin in Bedford, Massachusetts considered every possible theory for her death – kidnapping for ransom, burglary gone wrong, a random attack in an otherwise quiet community – and yet nothing led police to the tr ... Show More
39m 42s
Jul 2024
The Murder of Tashauna Jackson (Connecticut)
In the last episode of Dark Downeast, you heard the story of Denise Hart and her still unsolved homicide in Vermont. I mentioned in that episode the case of another woman who grew up in the same city and around the same people as Denise. So, that’s the story I’m going to tell you ... Show More
33m 57s
Jul 2024
The Night Shy Shy Disappeared
Shy’Kemmia Pate was last seen near her home in Unadilla, Georgia, on September 4, 1998. She was 8 years old. Several people reported seeing her that evening in the neighborhood. Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz speaks with some of her loved ones, as well as Dooly County Sheriff’s Deput ... Show More
31m 36s
Jun 2024
The Murders of Audrey Lynn Harris, Christine Dumont, & Stacie Goulet (Rhode Island)
During a nearly 18-month span beginning the winter of 2003, Audrey Lynn Harris, Christine Dumont, and Stacie Goulet disappeared without a trace from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, leaving their families and investigators searching for answers. It wasn’t until detectives received an an ... Show More
36m 21s
Jul 2
Talking Dateline: Cape Fear
Josh Mankiewicz catches up with Dateline producer Shane Bishop about their classic episode, “Cape Fear.” Young mother Allison Jackson Foy went missing after leaving a Wilmington, North Carolina bar in 2006. Two years later, a man walking in the woods three miles from that bar, fo ... Show More
21m 43s
Aug 2024
The Murder of Carla Terry (Connecticut)
During the late 80s and early 90s, multiple women from Hartford, Connecticut were found dead in remote areas of the city and surrounding towns. After identifying a suspect in one of the cases and bringing it all the way to trial, police thought they might have a serial killer on ... Show More
37m 31s
Jul 2023
EP. 118 TEXAS - She Killed Her Best Friend & Stole Her Baby
At the end of 2019, a puzzling crime rocked the community of Austin, Texas. A mother, Heidi Broussard, had gone missing, along with her daughter... and nobody had a clue where she had went. But when the facts of the case began to emerge, an extremely dark picture was painted... a ... Show More
1h 12m
Jan 2025
The Murders of Carol Caswell, Lisa Snyder & Sheila Holmes (New Hampshire)
Carol Caswell, Lisa Snyder, and Sheila Holmes were forever connected when their names surfaced during the interrogation of a suspect who would later be charged and convicted in one of their murders. That same individual remains the primary suspect in at least one of the two other ... Show More
46m 36s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami