ESR Photography wrote:

With all due respect, but I am soooooooooooooo going to call BULLSHIT on the above quote purportedly given by the police. Attempting to cast law enforcement officials in a bad light because they haven't done or won't do what you feel they should is only hurting your alleged situation and not helping it.

When this thread first appeared, I really didn't see the relevance of it being on this forum at the time. Now, in light of what has transpired and what many on here have been led to believe, I feel it even moreso. Just my take.

Agreed...Like Off Topic

As for the police, agreed again. She may not even be a missing person. There is no evidence of foul play and for all they know she left town for whatever reason and doesn't want to be found.

Brian Baybo wrote:

And as her "Best Friend" you must not know her as well as you thought.

From the FB page;
Mel "Vega" Munoz is Missing Thank you everyone. Please know Mel will be home safe soon. Thank so much for your support.
June 14 at 9:18pm

Mel "Vega" Munoz is Missing There is no update because we have no new information. Melanie did not come home, nobody knows where she is. People called and said they saw her driving around town with a bald white guy on Tuesday. Unless you have seen or talked to her and know where she is...
June 17 at 1:08pm

Guess who wrote that?

I'm not concerned - there are a lot of terrible people posting in this thread, but I know that there are many in the community who appreciate having this information made available to them.

I really can't afford to go over this point any more - yes - we thought we found her - yes, we thought she was safe - yes, this was information backed up by the police - and yes, this information from the police later panned out to be less than thorough.

The information about her car being seen and a bald man driving it - there's no telling if this is accurate - the people who called saw her missing persons flier posted around town and called in response to that.  Several of them by the end of the call admitted they weren't sure if it was her or not. One of them by the end of the call said for sure it wasn't her and they were mistaken.

Do you really think that a missing persons case is going to be simple and straight-forward?

And do you really think that this search is being conducted by just one person?

Nevermind, don't answer that.

I don't have all day to be repeating myself - I am making my regular round of calling hospitals and jails and places like that - and trying to continue my own life. 

If you think this is bullshit, please - have some manners - and keep those thoughts to yourself.  This is a real person we are talking about.

LaRana wrote:
So we learned our lesson: Houston police don't know what the hell is going on. Stupid us for thinking they did!

I think that there are many people residing in and around Houston, Texas that would strongly disagree! Further to the point, I can only hope that if YOU ever find yourself in Houston, Texas and are in a 'bad way', that you would have the good sense (in light of your statements and thoughts therein) NOT TO CALL 9-1-1 for assistance. You wouldn't want a bunch of incompetents coming to YOUR rescue as a result, now would you. Your remarks toward law enforcement in Houston are broadbased and disrespectful to those busting their ass and laying their lives on the line on a daily basis. Just my take.

Alisyn Carliene wrote:

The point of the forums is to help find your friend. If you don't want to update the forums, then it seems we can't really help too much. You never told us the story on when she was found.. this is just seeming fishy but OK I will still continue to support it.

I don't have time to hang out in the forums all day and respond to the same queries! This is why we have made websites, facebook groups, and twitter accounts that a team of people searching for her can work to answer questions and keep people updated.

Rachel Jay wrote:

And while I get the excitement of being all "she's been found!", why wasn't it VERIFIED before it was announced pretty much everywhere?!

One would think if Mel talked to the OP's Mom, that was verification.

That's why this whole thing difficult to decipher. It appears the OP's Mom was giving out false information.

I can see where "sightings" etc could be false leads, but the OP's Mom talking to her?

ESR Photography wrote:

I think that there are many people residing in and around Houston, Texas that would strongly disagree! Further to the point, I can only hope that if YOU ever find yourself in Houston, Texas and are in a 'bad way', that you would have the good sense (in light of your statements and thoughts therein) NOT TO CALL 9-1-1 for assistance. You wouldn't want a bunch of incompetents coming to YOUR rescue as a result, now would you. Your remarks toward law enforcement in Houston are broadbased and disrespectful to those busting their ass and laying their lives on the line on a daily basis. Just my take.

I've called the cops before when I was in trouble. Several times - because of assault and robberies. They say the same thing... 'there's nothing we can do."

It's not because of individual incompetencies. It's because they keep cutting the funding, have to fire people, and try to run a department that's getting more and more calls everyday with less money.

And so yeah - they let a lot of people down. That's life in the big city for you...

LaRana wrote:

Guess who wrote that?

I'm not concerned - there are a lot of terrible people posting in this thread, but I know that there are many in the community who appreciate having this information made available to them.

I really can't afford to go over this point any more - yes - we thought we found her - yes, we thought she was safe - yes, this was information backed up by the police - and yes, this information from the police later panned out to be less than thorough.

The information about her car being seen and a bald man driving it - there's no telling if this is accurate - the people who called saw her missing persons flier posted around town and called in response to that.  Several of them by the end of the call admitted they weren't sure if it was her or not. One of them by the end of the call said for sure it wasn't her and they were mistaken.

Do you really think that a missing persons case is going to be simple and straight-forward?

And do you really think that this search is being conducted by just one person?

Nevermind, don't answer that.

I don't have all day to be repeating myself - I am making my regular round of calling hospitals and jails and places like that - and trying to continue my own life. 

If you think this is bullshit, please - have some manners - and keep those thoughts to yourself.  This is a real person we are talking about.

Bullshit or not, I believe she does NOT want to be found. By you or anyone else. And I don't need to keep my thoughts to myself in a public forum. You complain about MM deleting and locking threads and how her family wants to NOT use MM as an information source. Then why even post this thread? To keep us updated? No need with the FB site. FB is much bigger than MM

Manda W wrote:
You keep wanting everyone to "accept" that there was "false information" when YOU had previously said that she had made contact and whatnot. That isn't the police giving you false information. That would be you either giving us false information than or now. Which is it?

Perhaps if you explained this in a little more detail instead of expecting us all to "accept it" blindly, you might have a little more support.

I agree.. Just not makin' sense here.

LaRana wrote:

I don't have time to hang out in the forums all day and respond to the same queries! This is why we have made websites, facebook groups, and twitter accounts that a team of people searching for her can work to answer questions and keep people updated.

Well your wasting time hanging out now then.. Anyway I do not have facebook or twitter and though i'd love follow ups due to my career goals, I don't want to sign up again.

Brian Baybo wrote:
Bullshit or not, I believe she does NOT want to be found. By you or anyone else. And I don't need to keep my thoughts to myself in a public forum. You complain about MM deleting and locking threads and how her family wants to NOT use MM as an information source. Then why even post this thread? To keep us updated? No need with the FB site. FB is much bigger than MM

The OP inferred there were a few threads that had been hidden.

As I mentioned earlier, there were only 2 threads, and neither of them were deleted.

This is why I have the feeling her statements about the police not caring and not doing anything have been exaggerated, as the statements about the deleted threads were.

LaRana wrote:

I don't have time to hang out in the forums all day and respond to the same queries! This is why we have made websites, facebook groups, and twitter accounts that a team of people searching for her can work to answer questions and keep people updated.

It would be helpful to just explain how your mother actually talking to Mel was a false lead - did they or did they not talk to each other?

Rachel Jay wrote:
And while I get the excitement of being all "she's been found!", why wasn't it VERIFIED before it was announced pretty much everywhere?!

Greg Kolack wrote:
One would think if Mel talked to the OP's Mom, that was verification.

That's why this whole thing difficult to decipher. It appears the OP's Mom was giving out false information.

I can see where "sightings" etc could be false leads, but the OP's Mom talking to her?

Right?  I definitely understand the "sightings" being false leads.

I mean, saying something like, "we have leads that say she has been sighted and is alive, but we are waiting for confirmation" is a far cry from "she's been found ALIVE!".

I dunno, if it were me, I wouldn't say she's been found alive until she was sitting in front of me.

LaRana wrote:
I've called the cops before when I was in trouble. Several times - because of assault and robberies. They say the same thing... 'there's nothing we can do."

It's not because of individual incompetencies. It's because they keep cutting the funding, have to fire people, and try to run a department that's getting more and more calls everyday with less money.

And so yeah - they let a lot of people down. That's life in the big city for you...

Your statement above is extremely telling to me. Why? Well, most folks can go a lifetime and not require the assistance of law enforcement as it relates to 'assaults and/or robberies'. You, however, being only 28 have had occasion to do so 'SEVERAL TIMES'. To me, this speaks volumes.

I would venture to say that you come across almost as if we are 'supposed' to be as concerned with this alleged situation as yourself. And if we are not, then there must be something wrong with us, etc. If your approach and communication with law enforcement is anything like it appears to be within this thread, then I could see how they could possible receive you as being less than credible.

Greg Kolack wrote:
The OP inferred there were a few threads that had been hidden.

As I mentioned earlier, there were only 2 threads, and neither of them were deleted.

And the only reason they were locked because she told us the model was found.
If she hadn't done that (or at least informed us it was a false lead) - we wouldn't have stopped looking for this girl weeks ago before the trail went cold. Now suddenly we find out that she's supposedly still missing?

Rachel Jay wrote:
I mean, saying something like, "we have leads that say she has been sighted and is alive, but we are waiting for confirmation" is a far cry from "she's been found ALIVE!".

If she is legitimately missing I feel really bad for her, but at this point don't know what any of us can do. We could have been looking for the last 18 days.

Greg Kolack wrote:
This is why I have the feeling her statements about the police not caring and not doing anything have been exaggerated, as the statements about the deleted threads were.

I can certainly understand how one might feel the cops don't care.  After all, no one from the family is there watching every move they make, listening to every call that comes in, contacting other departments or whatever to file reports and follow up on leads, and also dealing with every other call that comes in that the cop have to deal with.  Being told, "she's an adult, we're working on it, but there's not much else we can do" might, under stress like this, easily be interpreted as "she's an adult and we don't give a fuck where she is, it's not important to us".

Fotographia Fantastique wrote:

Greg Kolack wrote:
The OP inferred there were a few threads that had been hidden.

As I mentioned earlier, there were only 2 threads, and neither of them were deleted.

And the only reason they were locked because she told us the model was found.
If she hadn't done that (or at least informed us it was a false lead) - we wouldn't have stopped looking for this girl weeks ago before the trail went cold. Now suddenly we find out that she's supposedly still missing?


If she is legitimately missing I feel really bad for her, but at this point don't know what any of us can do. We could have been looking for the last 18 days.

I agree. Why wait 18 days to repost that she's still missing!?

Rachel Jay wrote:

I can certainly understand how one might feel the cops don't care.  After all, no one from the family is there watching every move they make, listening to every call that comes in, contacting other departments or whatever to file reports and follow up on leads, and also dealing with every other call that comes in that the cop have to deal with.  Being told, "she's an adult, we're working on it, but there's not much else we can do" might, under stress like this, easily be interpreted as "she's an adult and we don't give a fuck where she is, it's not important to us".

Yes, that's because the majority of missing adult cases is because the person wanted to go missing. Though occasional kidnappings, etc. happen to adults, they act better if there's evidence of the possibility that the person was forced and didn't run away.

Alisyn Carliene wrote:

I agree. Why wait 18 days to repost that she's still missing!?

Yet another clue in this odd scenario...

Greg Kolack wrote:
The OP inferred there were a few threads that had been hidden.

As I mentioned earlier, there were only 2 threads, and neither of them were deleted.

Fotographia Fantastique wrote:
And the only reason they were locked because she told us the model was found.
If she hadn't done that (or at least informed us it was a false lead) - we wouldn't have stopped looking for this girl weeks ago before the trail went cold. Now suddenly we find out that she's supposedly still missing?

Good point.

The OP makes it out to sound as though MM hid the threads because they didn't care and didn't want to help. But the truth is MM only locked the threads because they were informed that the search was over.

Again, this twisting and exaggerating of the facts makes her statements about the police seem less credible.

Greg Kolack wrote:
Again, this twisting and exaggerating of the facts makes her statements about the police seem less credible.

Ya' think?

Alisyn Carliene wrote:
Yes, that's because the majority of missing adult cases is because the person wanted to go missing. Though occasional kidnappings, etc. happen to adults, they act better if there's evidence of the possibility that the person was forced and didn't run away.

That too.

Greg Kolack wrote:
I can't remember who it was, but supposedly an MM photographer was dead a couple of years ago. His girlfriend posted it on his account. Then suddenly he wasn't dead, his girlfriend was out to get him, and he made a melodramatic video he posted smoking and giving an performance of a lifetime explaining everything.

Pretty much everyone knew it was just a way to draw attention to himself.

I can't remember who that was, but to top it all off he wore an eyepatch...

Photo-Op.

And yeah, this whole thing seems really fishy. Either the girl is legitimately missing or she isn't. I'm not sure how people on here are supposed to help if we can't get accurate information.

Hopefully she will turn up safe and sound.

Alisyn Carliene wrote:
I googled and did my research but there are NO legitimate reports of this missing person like there should be, such as news from legitimate news stations or police stations. I found this but is it really a crime against a model? It says she was found
http://missingmodels.blogspot.com/2010/ … model.html
which even this website isn't legit, it's a blog.
All I saw was FB pages, and myspace pages, blogs mostly.
The way you describe her in her website melanieismissing.com on your latest post, isn't aimed toward finding her at all, its more aimed on what she's good at and blah blah blah and well it seems like a total attention getter. Though I could be wrong, it's not stacking up.

I Googled as well.  My own blog was the first result that came up when I searched "Mel Vega Missing Model".  No news stories or anything... not even a mention on a news website.

Rachel Jay wrote:

I Googled as well.  My own blog was the first result that came up when I searched "Mel Vega Missing Model".  No news stories or anything... not even a mention on a news website.

yep. lol saw your blog like 3 times. Looked up to page 5 of results, nothing legit to go off of. Most news stations etc. will record a missing adult's case because it's news! I'm starting to think that this is a person wanting some attention. Anyway, I'm done with this but will continue to read for updates to see where this case goes.

Greg Kolack wrote:
I can't remember who it was, but supposedly an MM photographer was dead a couple of years ago. His girlfriend posted it on his account. Then suddenly he wasn't dead, his girlfriend was out to get him, and he made a melodramatic video he posted smoking and giving an performance of a lifetime explaining everything.

Pretty much everyone knew it was just a way to draw attention to himself.

I can't remember who that was, but to top it all off he wore an eyepatch...

i know who you are talking about

Alisyn Carliene wrote:
yep. lol saw your blog like 3 times. Looked up to page 5 of results, nothing legit to go off of. Most news stations etc. will record a missing adult's case because it's news! I'm starting to think that this is a person wanting some attention. Anyway, I'm done with this but will continue to read for updates to see where this case goes.

What's even funnier is how many of those links link back to my blog.

Greg, I do agree that perhaps this is a call for IB to look into Mel's PM box and trash, and see if there are any clues.

Rachel Jay wrote:

What's even funnier is how many of those links link back to my blog.

Greg, I do agree that perhaps this is a call for IB to look into Mel's PM box and trash, and see if there are any clues.

I'm kind of surprised the police didn't request it too. Usually they like to look on a person's emails, etc. to see if there are any clues on their whereabouts.

Alisyn Carliene wrote:
I'm kind of surprised the police didn't request it too. Usually they like to look on a person's emails, etc. to see if there are any clues on their whereabouts.

I suppose it's possible that they have done so, and didn't find anything worthwhile (hence there being no mention of it).  Though her account shows last login as June 2... I'm not sure though if IB's entering an account shows as activity, or if they do it all backend somehow.

I don't think IB or any of the admins have commented on whether or not they've accessed her info, and I don't know if they should.

Alisyn Carliene wrote:

I'm kind of surprised the police didn't request it too. Usually they like to look on a person's emails, etc. to see if there are any clues on their whereabouts.

Perhaps they have.

Anyway, I Camd suggesting it.

Rachel Jay wrote:
I suppose it's possible that they have done so, and didn't find anything worthwhile (hence there being no mention of it).  Though her account shows last login as June 2... I'm not sure though if IB's entering an account shows as activity, or if they do it all backend somehow.

I don't think IB or any of the admins have commented on whether or not they've accessed her info, and I don't know if they should.

I would guess they wouldn't mention it, especially if the law has in fact already asked them to.

I would imagine a PM would show up as activity, but there may be something prior to that date that could give some clue.

But I am not of the mindset that the law doesn't care and are idiots, so I am assuming if there is legit reason to think she is missing, they are already doing these things, not only with MM, but other sites she may be on.

Greg Kolack wrote:

I would guess they wouldn't mention it, especially if the law has in fact already asked them to.

That's true.

Mischa M wrote:
Im confused...

we all are.