ATLANTA — Melissa Wolfenbarger was a 21-year-old married mother-of-two who had been missing for four years before her remains were finally identified.
But decades passed and the identity of her alleged killer remained a mystery – until now.
Channel 2 Action News has been on the case from the beginning and was first to learn her husband was arrested and charged with her murder 25 years later.
“I think the big message is that that case lets the public know that this office is never going to give up on victims,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said.
That was exactly what Norma Patton wanted to hear.
Patton has fought for justice for more than two decades after her daughter, Wolfenbarger, disappeared without a trace just after Christmas in 1998.
“What’s the toughest part of your daughter being missing? Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne asked Patton in a recent interview.
“Not knowing,” Patton said.
The first break in the case came in 2003 when Patton’s husband Carl -- a convicted serial killer-- pleaded guilty to several of the Flint River murders that date back to the 1970s.
He was sentenced to serve life in prison.
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Norma Patton had knowledge of the murders and received immunity as part of the plea deal.
She asked the Fayette County investigator who put him behind bars to help find her missing 21-year-old daughter Melissa.
“She stopped me and said, ‘Now, would you help find my daughter?” the investigator said at the time.
After months of investigating, they learned remains found in garbage bags tossed on the side of the road in southeast Atlanta belonged to Melissa.
That was 2001. Channel 2 Action News sat down with the family again in 2022 when there were still no arrests in the case.
“The skull. It was found first. April 29th, 1999. And on the TV when it came up because I was watching it, I watched the story and the story said it was a male,” Patton said. “They went back and found the legs and arms on June 3 of 1999. And still, they were saying it was a male. So she was in the morgue for four years before she was identified.”
“Once that skull was misidentified as a male, nobody had a John Doe. Nobody had, you know, a missing person that had been found as a Caucasian male. And they knew it wasn’t Melissa because it was a male. So law enforcement lost critical investigative time,” said Sheryl McCollum, a crime scene investigator.
Time the family continued digging for answers themselves, walking McCollum and Channel 2′s Karyn Greer through the scene, doing numerous podcasts, and appearing at crime conventions to keep her story alive.
“When this first happened, all they could do was blood typing. They couldn’t tell you anything. Again, this goal was misidentified because they couldn’t tell you. They can now and have and I believe shortly they will,” McCollum said.
And they did. Two years later on Aug. 7, 2024, a suspect was arrested, found hiding behind a dryer in his Griffin home.
Arrested was Christopher Wolfenbarger, Melissa’s estranged husband.
“He’s currently in Fulton County, and we’re going to the next phase, which is the district attorney’s office, and, of course, the court proceedings,” Detective Darian Sheppard said.
Days after the arrest, Greer walked with the family one last time back to the scene where Melissa’s decapitated and dismembered body was found -- outside of the business where Christopher worked just miles from the home she once shared with him.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s tough to be here knowing she was found here in the middle of the street and just thrown out like the trash over here on the side of the street,” said sister Tina Wolfenbarger.
“Why was Chris always a suspect for you all?” Greer asked.
“He was abusive. He was always abusing her,” Tina Wolfenbarger said.
“I think it’s been a case that has really been pulling on the heartstrings of many in law enforcement for many years. And so it is a case that we’ve worked, and we’re celebrating because we’re getting closer to justice for this family,” Willis said.
Christopher Wolfenbarger is charged with murder and felony murder. He is set to make his first court appearance on Sept. 17.
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