PORT ANGELES — Police say they expect a break soon in the death of Melissa Leigh Carter, the teenager who was strangled and left in a muddy hollow near the Waterfront Trail on Christmas weekend.
In the meantime, her father and brothers have turned the secluded spot into a shrine.
Police Chief Tom Riepe on Wednesday said investigators had received results of tests on evidence and have forwarded them to Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly.
“I hope we will be able to make a joint announcement next week,” he said.
Previously, police said they had a “person of interest” in the case but declined to say if that person was in custody.
Christopher Carter, Melissa’s father, said he looks forward to the announcement.
He has moved from Jefferson County to Port Angeles to assist police, he says, and won’t leave town until the case is resolved.
Collection of toys, trinkets
While he waits, he tends to a collection of toys and trinkets where her body was discovered Dec. 26.
A marble cross, a candle, angel figurines, lipsticks and necklaces lie under a white umbrella at the site.
Eventually, he would like to build a staircase with a handrail up the steep path from the Waterfront Trail “so the kids can go up there,” he said Wednesday.
“The kids” are the homeless youths whom Melissa — “Messa Mae” to her friends — befriended, twice leaving her mother’s home in Salem, Ore., to join them in Port Angeles.
“I would like to do a little more intensive memorial,” Carter said, perhaps including adding a bench in the spring, maybe some wild ferns.
Until then, he said, “I’ll keep it looking nice for the winter.”
Melissa’s body, clad only in shoes, was found by two young men using the path to go from North Vine Street to the Waterfront Trail about a block east of Hollywood Beach.
They said the area was a favorite hangout for homeless people.
At home of a friend
She had been staying with her mother’s permission at the home of a Port Angles friend, whose mother reported Melissa as a runaway on Dec. 23.
Police learned she last was seen alive at a party that night at the Chinook Motel, 1414 E. First St.
Melissa’s friends have said that her killer might have followed her from the party.
Her identification was delayed for several days because animals had damaged her features. An autopsy did not reveal physical evidence to confirm or exclude a sexual assault, authorities said.
Police from the start treated her death as a homicide, although it was weeks before a pathologist said she had been strangled.
Investigators ruled out drugs as a cause of death.