Melanie Renee Metheny

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Kanawha County Sheriff S Department (WV)

Missing From:

Belle, West Virginia

Summary:

Melanie Renee Metheny, a 21-year-old mother of three, vanished on July 19, 2006, from Belle, West Virginia. She was last seen after dropping her children off at Country Kids Daycare and planning to go to the Garnet Career Center to pick up her transcripts so she could register for classes at West Virginia State University. Her case remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Metheny was last seen at approximately 8:00 a.m. on July 19, 2006, after dropping her three children off at the Country Kids Daycare facility in the vicinity of the 3000 block of east Dupont Avenue in Belle, West Virginia. Metheny planned to go to the Garnet Career Center to pick up her transcripts so she could register for classes at West Virginia State University. The last contact with her was at 9:00 a.m., when she called an automobile body shop on her cellular phone to verify an upcoming appointment. Some person, possibly Metheny, dialed her voice mail from her cellular phone at 9:30 a.m. She has never been heard from again. She was reported missing that evening, after she failed to pick up her children from the day care facility as scheduled. On July 23, Metheny's gold and tan 1998 Chevrolet minivan was located abandoned in the vicinity of Wyoming Street and Beuhring Avenue in Charleston. The vehicle had been at that location at least since 2:00 p.m. the day Metheny went missing. The doors were locked and the van was intact with CDs inside, but it had apparently been wiped clean of fingerprints. The only items missing were Metheny's purse and cellular phone. Several items were found on the minivan's front seat, including a business card and a piece of paper with a phone number and a notation about a house for sale. On the afternoon of the day Metheny disappeared, a witness reported seeing a young woman struggling to get out of a red SUV on the west side of Charleston. The woman was yelling "What about my babies?" The SUV has never been located and the woman has never been identified. Investigators believe she could have been Metheny.

Additional Details:

Metheny was reported missing by her father at 11:18 p.m. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office began searching for Melanie immediately, and a BOLO for her van was issued to local departments. The investigation into Metheny's disappearance has lead to more than 200 interviews. Authorities got a new lead in Metheny's case in the fall of 2013, after Cindy Creathers admitted to helping her boyfriend, drug dealer Joey Keith Jeffrey, kidnap and torture another woman, Jeffrey's cousin, in December 2012. Creathers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery with threat of deadly force and agreed to testify against Jeffrey in exchange for a sentence of one to five years in prison. She told the court that during the incident, Jeffrey mentioned Metheny and said, "I'm going to put you in the same hole I put her in." A photo of Jeffrey is posted with this case summary. He is considered a person of interest in Metheny's case and has been questioned about her disappearance, although he hasn't faced any charges relating to it. In 2014, he was convicted of second-degree robbery, malicious wounding and assault. He will not be eligible for parole for at least 24 years. Melanie's is the oldest missing persons case in Kanawha County. In 2016 — one decade after her disappearance — a tree was planted in Melanie's honor at Coonskin Park in Charleston. Metheny's family started Melanie's Hope, a charitable organization dedicated to raising awareness about missing people. It also supports animal rescue, something that was important to her.

Case Last Updated:

May 12, 2026