Melinda was placed in the Blake House, an all-girls juvenile detention facility, in 1979 after she and another teenager were caught stealing motorcycles. She ran away from the facility on September 4 of that year. In 1994, Melinda's mother, Shirley Creech, told her other four children that a badly decomposed body found in New Jersey had been identified as Melinda. They believed her, although no funeral service was ever conducted for the child.

When Shirley died in 2003, Melinda's siblings found letters among her personal effects which stated that dental records had proved that the New Jersey body was not Melinda's. In 2004, police re-opened Melinda's missing persons case. They are currently tracking down and interviewing her old friends to see if any of them have heard from her. They do not know why Shirley lied to her family about Melinda's supposed death. Melinda's siblings have described Shirley as an extremely abusive parent. There has been no activity on Melinda's Social Security number since 1979. Her father is now also deceased.

Melinda's case remains unsolved. Some agencies give the date of her disappearance as September 5, 1979.