Human Wreckage True Crime

A Kidnapping Unravels Into A Murder That Haunts Four Decades Later

• Thomas W

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There's a particular heaviness to stories born in the early 1980s, a time suspended between old world quiet and the creeping modern age. Police departments still relied on filing cabinets and instinct. Small towns stayed small even when secrets grew large. Who killed Michelle Mellander and why did her story fall into the cracks of history? This is human wreckage. Let's step into 1981. In the late afternoon, they were joined by a man who introduced himself as Don Donovan, known to most as Panama Red. The group shared several beers and played some rounds of pool. By 7 p.m., Vicki mentioned needing to head home because the babysitter for their two children, five month old Michelle and five year old Michael Jr., had to leave. Panama Red offered Vicky a ride home, while Michael opted to stay at the bar. However, neither Vicki nor Michael were ready to call it a night just yet. They decided that Vicki would go with Panama to pick up the children and then return to the bar together. They ushered Michelle and Michael Jr. into Panama's pickup truck, but instead of heading directly back to the silver saddle bar, Vicki and Panama made a detour to another establishment, the Turtle Barn, for a drink. While they were inside, Michelle and Michael Jr. remained in the truck. Upon returning to the vehicle, Michael Jr. reported that someone had apparently reached in and taken a twenty-two caliber rifle that was lying on the floor. However, he later confessed that he had actually discovered the weapon, pointed it at a man in the parking lot, who then confiscated it. Panama's anger flared, prompting Vicki to flee in fear, leaving her children behind in the pickup truck. Panama chased after her and managed to persuade her to return to the vehicle. Together, they drove back to the silver saddle, leaving Michelle and Michael Jr. in the truck in the parking lot once more. Vicki and Panama briefed Michael about the rifle theft, and they collectively agreed to report the incident to the police. Panama drove to the Parker Police Department and waited in the pickup truck with the children while Vicky went inside to report the theft. However, upon returning outside with a police officer, they discovered that the pickup truck, along with Panama and the children, was nowhere to be found. Vicki suspected that Panama had returned to the silver saddle bar, so she was escorted there by a police officer, but neither Panama nor the children were at the bar. Vicki and Michael described Panama as a white man in his early twenties, around six feet tall and weighing around one hundred and seventy pounds with shoulder length brown hair. They said to detectives that he was dressed like a cowboy, and he had been driving a 1976 Chevrolet or Ford pickup truck with California license plates. The search for Michelle and Michael commenced promptly. Michelle's medical condition, which prevented her from consuming milk without a special formula, added a critical dimension to the search efforts. Detective Ronald Hill emphasized the urgency, stating, We need help finding this girl. She's not supposed to drink milk, and without the special formula, her condition could become really bad. At about ten thirty PM that night, Michael Jr. was discovered walking along an isolated road around eleven miles north of California sixty two on the Parker Dam Road. He was alone and visibly distressed. When police were called to the scene, he told them that Panama had dropped him off and promised to return shortly, but when he never returned, he began walking along the road. Despite his evident trauma, Michael Jr. was unable to provide further details about the events that transpired. However, he did mention that Panama had been nice and had acted like a cop. Additionally, he remembered his sister being frightened and in tears during the ordeal. Following the evident kidnapping, an extensive manhunt was initiated, mobilizing resources from the Parker Police, Yuma County Sheriff's Department, Yuma Police, Colorado River Indian Police, and the FBI. Despite concerted efforts, detectives found themselves grappling with the perplexing abduction of Michelle. Detective Hill remarked, We're still digging around. The man apparently was a transient, possibly in town just two days before it happened. However, he added that this information hadn't been substantiated. They had just heard he was a transient by word of mouth. Despite extensive efforts, including the thorough search of the area where Michael was found wandering, involving forty to sixty individuals scouring the seventeen mile desert strip, no significant findings emerged. The days continued to pass and on august tenth, detectives announced that they believed Michelle may be dead. While Panama had told Vicky and Michael his name was Don Donovan, this had been a fake name. Detectives couldn't find anybody with that name, but they heard from some locals who had encountered Panama in the days leading up to the abduction. Most had met him in a bar, but none could provide any information about his identity, where he lived or where he worked. That evening in San Bernardino County, California, a man was on his way to the dump at Black Meadow Landing. As he approached, something about four to five feet from the road caught his attention, an infant's child seat. However, as he drew closer, a putrid odor assaulted his senses. His gaze scanned the surroundings, and what he saw next would haunt him indefinitely. There, amidst the desolation, lay the badly decomposed body of Michelle. The examination of Michelle's body by the pathologist unveiled a disturbing narrative. Among the findings were multiple injuries, including a fatal crushing blow to her skull. However, it was evident that Michelle had endured a series of brutalities prior to her death. The examination revealed specific details of Michelle's injuries, painting a grim picture of the violence she endured. A bruise above and to the left of her eye indicated pressure from a smooth surface inflicted while she was still alive. Furthermore, Michelle suffered a fractured collarbone in two locations, along with three broken ribs on her left side. Additionally, tears were observed in the skin around her left nipple and armpit. Moreover, her upper left arm bore a fracture near the elbow, suggestive of either blunt force trauma or twisting of the arm. The autopsy revealed even more horrifying details. Michelle bore a long incision stretching from her ribs to her groin, with her uterus being removed through this opening. Additionally, two small incisions were found over her left groin, along with an oval incision between her legs where her vagina and anus had been removed. Due to the extensive trauma to Michelle's body and the nature of the injuries, determining whether she had been sexually assaulted proved impossible. The missing person investigation transformed into a murder investigation, and in mid-August, an arrest was made. Nineteen year old Brett Pensinger was arrested in his uncle's truck in Midland, Texas after his family called police and said he may have been the man involved in the murder. He matched the description, and the description of the pickup truck matched his uncle's pickup truck, which he had stolen. When Pensinger was arrested, blood was observed on his pants, shirt, belt, and boots, but these were not typed or compared to his or Michelle's blood. There was also blood found inside the pickup truck, but Pensinger suggested it was his own. In September, Pensinger was extradited to California, where he was charged with first degree murder. His murder trial began on july seventh, nineteen eighty two, and his defense attorney, Donald Fed, suggested that his client was innocent and that Vicky had killed her own daughter. He referred to the delay in her reporting the kidnapping. He revealed that at the time of the murder, Vicki was pregnant with her third child, despite the fact she had spent the entire day drinking. The defense attorney also mentioned that neither she nor Michael worked and had no place to stay. However, the prosecution presented three inmates who were incarcerated with Pensinger following his arrest. These three men testified that he had admitted to killing Michelle to them. One of them, Gary Howard, testified that Pensinger had driven off with the children at the police station because the truck he was driving had been stolen. He admitted he had been drinking all day and shooting Qualud. According to Howard's account, Pensinger said he drove around for a while and wasn't sure what to do, but when Michelle started crying, he punched her in the ribs. When the crying didn't stop, he threw her around the car. Pensinger said that Michael Jr. was in the vehicle when this happened and said that when he pulled over to relieve himself, Michael Jr. got out of the truck and took off running. Pensinger then said that he tried to have Michelle orally copulate with him, but when she couldn't, he cut open her stomach and cut her private parts out. Afterwards, Pensinger admitted to 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 the murder. He said that Paul had slapped Michelle, threw her out at the dump, and cut her with a knife. However, Pensinger later admitted that he didn't have an accomplice. Pensinger had also told fellow inmates he was going to play a dummy act to get to Patton State Hospital, where he planned to claim he had a split personality and blacked out. The defense suggested that the inmates were lying, and presented a woman who testified that she had heard Vicki talking about borrowing money from a man named Panama around a week before the murder. Vicki's mother-in-law also testified that Vicki didn't appear to love her daughter, while another witness told the jury that Vicky was annoyed over her life the day of the murder. She had allegedly complained about her living situation and was fed up that Michael wouldn't get a job to support them. Michael Jr. testified during the trial, telling the jury that it was just me, Panama and Michelle, the last time he saw her alive. He testified that Pensinger drove him and his sister to a remote area of the desert where he ordered him out of the car and drove off with Michelle. However, under cross examination, Michael Jr. failed to pick Pensinger out as the man he knew as Panama. The jury ultimately found Brett Pensinger guilty of the first degree murder of Michelle Mellander. The same jury that convicted him deliberated for twelve hours before deciding that he should be sentenced to death. The jury foreman, Helen Molles, stated, The man is a danger to society. However, that sentence was never carried out. In may twenty nineteen, fifty six year old Brett Pensinger died of natural causes on San Quentin's death row. In the end, the story of Michelle Mellander is less about the violence that took her life and more about the shadows she left behind shadows that stretch across more than four decades, long past the yellowed case files and fading memories of 1981. What happened to Michelle is frozen in time, but the meaning of it continues to shift, reshaped by every new detail uncovered, every overlooked clue reconsidered, every voice willing to speak after years of silence. This has been human wreckage. Until next time, stay curious and stay safe.