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NEW SERIES: BABY: The Melissa Highsmith Story · Devil Town

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey y'all, it's Wes. So yesterday I was on a
0:02
Speaker 1: long drive from East Texas down to Austin, and I
0:06
Speaker 1: put on the first episode of a new podcast by
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Speaker 1: some friends of mine, Sean Kipe and Jason Hoke. The
0:12
Speaker 1: show is called Baby, the Melissa Highsmith story. And I
0:16
Speaker 1: don't know y'all, it's like, as I was listening, I
0:19
Speaker 1: was just swept up in the story of this woman
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Speaker 1: from Fort Worth who was stolen as a baby. and
0:27
Speaker 1: wasn't reunited with her family for half a century. Like
0:31
Speaker 1: she had no idea, but her family never forgot about her.
0:35
Speaker 1: They never stopped searching. It's really powerful. By the time
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Speaker 1: that first episode was done, I was like, I need
0:42
Speaker 1: listeners of The Unforgotten and Deviltown to also hear this story.
0:46
Speaker 1: So I asked Sean and Jason if I could share.
0:49
Speaker 2: The first episode for you here.
0:51
Speaker 1: And if you like this story as much as I do,
0:54
Speaker 1: please track it down on Apple or Spotify. It's called Baby,
0:58
Speaker 1: The Melissa Highsmith Story. And like, subscribe, leave it a review.
1:03
Speaker 1: This is an indie podcast, and so Sean and Jason
1:07
Speaker 1: need all the help they can get, just like we
1:09
Speaker 1: all do, cutting through the noise, getting this story in
1:12
Speaker 1: front of as many people as possible. If you recognize
1:15
Speaker 1: Sean's name, it's because he is a tremendous podcaster. He
1:20
Speaker 1: made In the Red Clay. and In the Land of Lies,
1:23
Speaker 1: among many others. And Jason was actually my producer for
1:27
Speaker 1: my first two podcasts, Standoff and Deviltown. And congrats to
1:31
Speaker 1: them because they have made an outstanding podcast. It's called Baby,
1:35
Speaker 1: The Melissa Highsmith Story. Without further ado, here is the
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Speaker 1: first episode.
2:20
Speaker 3: First memory that I have is living in a house
2:25
Speaker 3: on a hill and me looking out the window and
2:28
Speaker 3: my big brother riding his tricycle right off of Berry
2:34
Speaker 3: and Riverside. I had my mom and her husband, which
2:41
Speaker 3: was a stepdad. Then I had a big brother and
2:44
Speaker 3: a little brother. Michael was the older one. We were
2:48
Speaker 3: never really, really that close. I was like something on
2:52
Speaker 3: the bottom of his shoe that he wanted to scrape off.
2:54
Speaker 3: He didn't want to have nothing.
2:55
Speaker 4: To do with me.
2:58
Speaker 3: My little brother, Matthew, I don't remember him being born.
3:02
Speaker 3: I just remember one day he was there.
3:05
Speaker 4: He was a toddler, and he was there.
3:07
Speaker 3: But my house, I just remember as early as I
3:13
Speaker 3: can remember her telling me that I was special.
3:19
Speaker 4: She would say that I was.
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Speaker 3: Born at home and that my heart stopped breathing and
3:22
Speaker 3: that I was mentally retarded. I grew up thinking that
3:27
Speaker 3: I was damaged. I would look at other families and
3:32
Speaker 3: they were all loving and everything. And I wondered, how
3:34
Speaker 3: come my mama doesn't love me? How come my brother
3:37
Speaker 3: doesn't love me? All my life I lived in the
3:43
Speaker 3: south side, and it wasn't more than three or four
3:47
Speaker 3: miles max from where I was taken.
3:52
Speaker 5: Imagine growing up and realizing you've never seen any of
3:55
Speaker 5: your baby pictures, or a book with your first lock
3:58
Speaker 5: of hair, or that first cute onesie. Then imagine living
4:03
Speaker 5: in a house where a younger brother just showed up
4:06
Speaker 5: one day. You don't remember him being born. And then
4:11
Speaker 5: imagine a family, a mom, a stepdad, that something about
4:17
Speaker 5: all of this, about them, just didn't feel right. If
4:21
Speaker 5: you had an entire city looking for you when you
4:25
Speaker 5: disappeared at just 21 months old, how would you even
4:29
Speaker 5: know you were lost? How would you know that your
4:32
Speaker 5: real mother and father, your real brothers and sisters, had
4:35
Speaker 5: been searching for you your entire life?
4:39
Speaker 2: How would you know?
4:41
Speaker 5: And what would you do once you found out?
4:44
Speaker 6: A Fort Worth woman who was abducted as a baby
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Speaker 6: more than half a century ago.
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Speaker 7: In 1971, 22-month-old Melissa Highsmith was abducted from her family
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Speaker 7: in Fort Worth, Texas.
4:56
Speaker 6: Melissa was captured in a disappearance that spanned 51 years.
5:01
Speaker 5: This is the incredible, true story of Melissa Highsmith. For
5:06
Speaker 5: the first time since discovering her real identity, Melissa Highsmith
5:11
Speaker 5: pulls back the curtain on a 50-year ordeal built on lies, longing,
5:16
Speaker 5: and loss.
5:19
Speaker 3: I've experienced things, and I've been through things that should
5:24
Speaker 3: have killed me. But I'm still here. You know, I'm
5:29
Speaker 3: a survivor. And I'm here to tell a buddy.
5:36
Speaker 5: I'm Sean Kipe from Particle Entertainment, and Waveland. This is Baby.
5:47
Speaker 5: This is Chapter One. Gone, Baby.
5:53
Speaker 7: Here I am playing music. I'm a musician. I'm playing
5:56
Speaker 7: drums and guitar and stuff. Temptation was so great. I
6:00
Speaker 7: was playing five nights a week, playing bass one night
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Speaker 7: and playing drums four nights a week. Here I am,
6:06
Speaker 7: 21 years old, and You know, I'm at the prime
6:09
Speaker 7: of my talent and I had women on me.
6:14
Speaker 5: That's Jeffrey Highsmith. In the late 1960s, he and his wife, Alta,
6:19
Speaker 5: lived in the Chicago area. They'd recently gotten married and
6:22
Speaker 5: already the relationship was falling apart.
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Speaker 7: I started cheating on my wife. I regret, I regret that.
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Speaker 7: And she was at home. She didn't do wrong other
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Speaker 7: than the fact that she was She wasn't happy. She
6:40
Speaker 7: didn't bring joy to the marriage. Of course, maybe it
6:44
Speaker 7: was me that caused all that.
6:46
Speaker 5: They had a daughter, Melissa. And Jeffrey admits that he
6:49
Speaker 5: just wasn't ready to be the husband and father his
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Speaker 5: young family needed at the time.
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Speaker 7: Here I am playing music and going wild. And she's
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Speaker 7: sitting at home with the baby. And I just decide
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Speaker 7: that I got married too young and I wanted to play.
7:06
Speaker 7: And I regret it. You know, I regret those things
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Speaker 7: that happened, but they did happen.
7:12
Speaker 5: Alta Apentinko was 22 years old when she moved from
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Speaker 5: Chicago to Fort Worth, Texas in the spring of 1971
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Speaker 5: after separating from Jeffrey. Their daughter Melissa was not yet
7:24
Speaker 5: two years old. And now, Alta was on her own
7:28
Speaker 5: taking care of her. But first, she had to find
7:31
Speaker 5: a place for them to live.
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Speaker 8: I ran into an old friend that I grew up with,
7:35
Speaker 8: and she... was looking for an apartment, and she asked
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Speaker 8: me where I lived, and I said, well, I'm looking
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Speaker 8: for an apartment. She said, well, why don't we go
7:43
Speaker 8: together and get one? I said, I don't know, I
7:45
Speaker 8: guess we could. So we got an apartment together.
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Speaker 2: Fort Worth felt like home to Alta.
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Speaker 5: It was more spread out than the bustling metropolis she'd
7:54
Speaker 5: just left. The pace was slower, more relaxed. The people
7:58
Speaker 5: were more friendly, more trusting. She moved in with an
8:01
Speaker 5: old friend, Carol. who had a young son as well,
8:04
Speaker 5: and could help watch Melissa until she found a new
8:07
Speaker 5: daycare center in this unfamiliar side of town.
8:11
Speaker 8: I had moved from one side of the town to
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Speaker 8: another part, and I had her in a daycare. And
8:20
Speaker 8: I was looking for a babysitter because I didn't know
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Speaker 8: that part of town, and I didn't know where there
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Speaker 8: was a daycare that I could leave her with.
8:28
Speaker 4: I was working, worked downtown.
8:31
Speaker 5: Alta found a waitressing job at a small diner in
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Speaker 5: downtown Fort Worth. But her roommate Carol could only do
8:37
Speaker 5: so much to help watch baby Melissa, especially with her
8:40
Speaker 5: new schedule. And, having just started the job, she couldn't
8:44
Speaker 5: take time off for fear of being fired. The stress
8:47
Speaker 5: got worse. Melissa developed colic and would cry incessantly. Most nights,
8:53
Speaker 5: she was inconsolable. Alta couldn't sleep and was exhausted. And
8:57
Speaker 5: Melissa's crying also began to grate on her roommate's nerves.
9:02
Speaker 5: Alta was desperate. She needed to find someone that could
9:05
Speaker 5: help her.
9:06
Speaker 8: I couldn't take off work, and I needed a babysitter
9:12
Speaker 8: right away. So I put an ad in the paper,
9:14
Speaker 8: and I told him that I needed a babysitter, told
9:17
Speaker 8: him the hours I worked, and I put my phone number.
9:21
Speaker 5: Alta placed a classified ad in the Star-Telegram that stated
9:24
Speaker 5: that she was looking for a sitter from 8 a.m.
9:27
Speaker 5: to 3.30 p.m.
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Speaker 4: I don't know how many people called. I don't remember.
9:32
Speaker 4: but this one woman called.
9:35
Speaker 5: She received several calls about the job, but for one
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Speaker 5: reason or another, they didn't feel like the right fit
9:41
Speaker 5: or their schedules wouldn't work. And that's when a woman called,
9:44
Speaker 5: identifying herself as Ruth Johnson.
9:48
Speaker 8: I called her and I talked to her on the phone,
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Speaker 8: and she said that she had a big yard and
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Speaker 8: she was babysitting other kids, and so it sounded good.
9:58
Speaker 5: Alta asked Ruth to meet her at the diner the
10:00
Speaker 5: following day so she could interview her in person and
10:04
Speaker 5: get to know her, see if she was truly a
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Speaker 5: good fit. Ruth happily agreed, but she never showed. The
10:11
Speaker 5: following day, the woman again called Alta at work, apologizing
10:16
Speaker 5: profusely for missing their meeting. Alta can't remember the excuse
10:20
Speaker 5: she gave now, but it must have been a convincing one.
10:24
Speaker 5: Ruth pleaded for the job. She again sold Alta on
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Speaker 5: how wonderful her backyard was, a place for Melissa to
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Speaker 5: play along with the other children she was babysitting. On
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Speaker 5: the phone, it sounded perfect. But Alta still hadn't met
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Speaker 5: Ruth in person, and there was no way she could
10:43
Speaker 5: get off work to make it happen. So Alta came
10:46
Speaker 5: up with a backup plan. Her roommate Carol, home with
10:50
Speaker 5: her son and with Melissa, could hand off the baby
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Speaker 5: to Ruth before she left for work. On August 23rd,
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Speaker 5: Carol had just woken up when there was a knock
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Speaker 5: at the door.
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Speaker 9: I remember looking out and seeing a person standing there
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Speaker 9: and asking.
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Speaker 2: Who it was.
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Speaker 9: Whether she said a name or not, I don't know.
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Speaker 9: But I knew that she said it was the babysitter
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Speaker 9: to pick up Melissa. and I knew that one was coming.
11:18
Speaker 9: I remember when I looked out the peephole that I
11:24
Speaker 9: had to look. I mean, it was a tall person.
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Speaker 2: I knew that.
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Speaker 5: When she opened the door, Carol was greeted by a
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Speaker 5: woman wearing all white.
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Speaker 9: When I opened the door, I thought I was odd
11:36
Speaker 9: because of the headscarf, the dark glasses, and this little
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Speaker 9: thin sweater. And she had it buttoned, the first four
11:44
Speaker 9: or five buttons, and the other part was not. A
11:47
Speaker 9: floral print dress, white stockings, like nurses wear. She had
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Speaker 9: a horrible voice. And I remember looking at the feet
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Speaker 9: and thinking, God, she's got big feet. And then when
12:00
Speaker 9: I saw her hands, I thought her hands were big
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Speaker 9: and she had on white gloves.
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Speaker 5: She was older, 48 to 50 maybe. Wore a bonnet
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Speaker 5: and sunglasses, and there was a scarf wrapped around her neck.
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Speaker 2: Hi, she said.
12:13
Speaker 5: I've come to pick up the baby. Carol called Alta
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Speaker 5: at work. to let her know.
12:18
Speaker 8: When Carol called me, I told her, well, go ahead
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Speaker 8: and take her. And I said, tell her to be
12:23
Speaker 8: back at the house at such and such time. I
12:27
Speaker 8: think it was like four o'clock or so. And so
12:32
Speaker 8: Carol went ahead and let her take the baby.
12:34
Speaker 5: But Carol was uneasy. Something about Ruth just didn't sit right.
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Speaker 9: I thought it was odd that she never took her
12:42
Speaker 9: sunglasses off. I had a real odd feeling, you know,
12:46
Speaker 9: and I was just real uncomfortable about it. And then
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Speaker 9: my son hollered for me and she said, is that Melissa?
12:56
Speaker 9: And I said, no, that's my son. And she said, oh,
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Speaker 9: you've got a child?
12:59
Speaker 7: And I said, yeah.
13:05
Speaker 9: She came into the living room area. And the first
13:09
Speaker 9: thing I did is I went in there to my
13:12
Speaker 9: bedroom and told my son what I was doing. And
13:16
Speaker 9: he just laid back down. When I come out, she said,
13:19
Speaker 9: do you need a babysitter? And I said, no. My
13:22
Speaker 9: son goes to daycare. She said, well, if you want,
13:27
Speaker 9: I'll babysit for you also. And I said, no, I
13:29
Speaker 9: don't need a babysitter, you know. And she said, well,
13:32
Speaker 9: I thought it might make it better for Melissa, you know,
13:36
Speaker 9: for her first day. And I said, no, you know.
13:41
Speaker 5: Ruth pushed several more times to watch Carol's son, too.
13:44
Speaker 5: She had no way of knowing how her life would
13:47
Speaker 5: have changed had she made a different choice.
13:50
Speaker 9: I went in there to get Melissa. I turned and
13:53
Speaker 9: she was at the doorway. And she says, oh, you
13:56
Speaker 9: don't have to wake her up or anything. She says
13:58
Speaker 9: she'll be fine. She's fine like she is. And I said, well,
14:01
Speaker 9: I've got to change her diaper. And I went in
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Speaker 9: the bathroom. She had stepped inside the bedroom. And I
14:10
Speaker 9: went in and got a washcloth, went back, and she
14:13
Speaker 9: was dead. Standing over the crib, looking.
14:16
Speaker 7: At the baby.
14:18
Speaker 5: Carol packed up a few things of Melissa's and handed
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Speaker 5: her over. As she did, she again noticed the woman
14:25
Speaker 5: wore long white gloves. It was an unusual outfit for
14:29
Speaker 5: anyone looking to survive the scorching heat of a Texas
14:32
Speaker 5: afternoon in August. With that, Ruth Johnson walked away with
14:38
Speaker 5: 21-month-old Melissa Highsmith.
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Speaker 8: After I got off work, I came home and I thought, well,
14:59
Speaker 8: you know, she should be here anytime. So I kept waiting,
15:02
Speaker 8: kept waiting. I waited from probably about 4 o'clock to
15:07
Speaker 8: about 6 o'clock.
15:09
Speaker 4: I was really worried then and I didn't know what
15:13
Speaker 4: to do.
15:14
Speaker 5: As the hours passed with no word from Ruth, Alta
15:18
Speaker 5: began to panic. In her hurry to find a sitter
15:21
Speaker 5: for Melissa, she realized something else.
15:25
Speaker 4: I don't know why I didn't get her number. I
15:27
Speaker 4: don't know the address.
15:30
Speaker 5: She had no way to contact her and had no
15:33
Speaker 5: idea where her baby was.
15:36
Speaker 8: So I called the police. I said, you know, I
15:39
Speaker 8: told them what happened. And I said, she hasn't brought
15:43
Speaker 8: my baby back yet. And they said, well, we can't
15:47
Speaker 8: do anything for you until 24 hours.
15:50
Speaker 4: I said, why? She's missing.
15:55
Speaker 8: They said, that's the law, you know, we can't do
15:57
Speaker 8: anything for 24 hours. If she's still missing at this
16:00
Speaker 8: time tomorrow, give us a call back.
16:04
Speaker 4: And I was up all night.
16:07
Speaker 5: Even in her panicked state, she never once thought about
16:10
Speaker 5: blaming Carol for giving Melissa to the woman.
16:13
Speaker 4: It wasn't her fault. It was my fault. I told
16:15
Speaker 4: her to let her go with the baby. I should
16:17
Speaker 4: have gone home right then.
16:18
Speaker 8: There's so many things I wish I would have done different.
16:23
Speaker 4: But I didn't.
16:25
Speaker 5: Alta didn't sleep that night. The realization sunk in that
16:29
Speaker 5: Ruth Johnson wasn't late or stuck in traffic. She didn't
16:33
Speaker 5: have a flat tire or engine trouble. She had taken
16:37
Speaker 5: her baby, and Alta had no idea where to even
16:41
Speaker 5: begin looking. As the hours passed, she began to question
16:45
Speaker 5: if Ruth Johnson was even her real name. In a
16:49
Speaker 5: later interview with police, Carol reflects on Alta that first night.
16:54
Speaker 9: Alta was just unconsolable that night, sitting at the window, watching.
17:00
Speaker 9: I said, Alta, just be calm because she'll be here.
17:04
Speaker 9: Don't worry about it. We kept telling her not to
17:06
Speaker 9: worry about it. And she kept saying, okay, okay. And
17:10
Speaker 9: she sat back at the window and just kept watching
17:14
Speaker 9: and then started asking me more questions. And then she
17:16
Speaker 9: was making me nervous.
17:20
Speaker 5: Ruth didn't call. She didn't bring baby Melissa back that night.
17:24
Speaker 5: She had vanished into a city of 400,000 like a ghost.
17:30
Speaker 8: I called my husband, and I told him, Melissa's missing.
17:34
Speaker 8: I don't know what happened to her. I told him
17:36
Speaker 8: this story.
17:37
Speaker 4: He didn't believe me.
17:39
Speaker 8: He thought I was just making it up so I
17:41
Speaker 8: could get him back. So he just said, well, I'm sorry,
17:45
Speaker 8: and hung up. You know, I thought, doesn't he care
17:50
Speaker 8: about Melissa?
17:53
Speaker 5: The next morning, With still no word from Ruth, and
17:56
Speaker 5: no doubt now that Melissa had been kidnapped, Alta called
17:59
Speaker 5: the police again. This time, they took her seriously. An
18:04
Speaker 5: officer was dispatched to her apartment to take a formal statement,
18:08
Speaker 5: and within days, the FBI joined the search.
18:11
Speaker 8: After a couple of days or so, the FBI came
18:15
Speaker 8: in on it. And I was interviewed by the FBI.
18:17
Speaker 8: I told them the whole story. They sent an FBI
18:22
Speaker 8: agent from that area, to Jeff, and then he started
18:25
Speaker 8: believing it. He said, oh, maybe she's telling the truth.
18:32
Speaker 8: But he never called back. He never asked if I
18:36
Speaker 8: knew anything. He never contacted me once after the FBI
18:41
Speaker 8: contacted them.
18:43
Speaker 7: I felt like that she was just trying to get
18:45
Speaker 7: me back, that it didn't really happen. Although I realized
18:50
Speaker 7: that it did happen when a couple days later that
18:53
Speaker 7: the FBI came by checking the house, my house out,
18:57
Speaker 7: and checking everything out to make sure I didn't take
19:01
Speaker 7: that baby. Then I realized that, yeah, this baby is kidnapped. Well,
19:07
Speaker 7: I just still was wild, and I was still running,
19:12
Speaker 7: and I just didn't take that as serious as I
19:17
Speaker 7: should have. Me being 24, Then, the media grabbed a
19:21
Speaker 7: hold of the story. In news reports, you'll often hear
19:24
Speaker 7: that Melissa was 22 months old. She actually wasn't. She
19:28
Speaker 7: was just over 21 months. This is Alta on a
19:30
Speaker 7: local Fort Worth television station.
19:40
Speaker 5: Often hear that Melissa was 22 months old. She actually wasn't.
19:44
Speaker 5: She was just over 21 months. This is Alta on
19:47
Speaker 5: a local Fort Worth television station.
19:50
Speaker 2: When did you start getting worried that afternoon?
19:53
Speaker 6: Oh, about five o'clock. I was really kind of worried.
19:57
Speaker 6: I thought she should have called or something, you know,
20:00
Speaker 6: let me know something had gone wrong. And she never called,
20:05
Speaker 6: so I waited. until 5.30 and 6.30, and she just
20:09
Speaker 6: never showed up. And so I found her way until
20:11
Speaker 6: 8 o'clock, and I called the police.
20:14
Speaker 2: When she didn't get there by about 8 o'clock, what
20:16
Speaker 2: was your reaction then? What did you think?
20:20
Speaker 6: I knew it had to be a kidnapping or something,
20:23
Speaker 6: you know, because she had plenty of opportunity to call.
20:28
Speaker 6: I just had this feeling that she had kidnapped my baby.
20:33
Speaker 5: She was interviewed by newspapers, radio, and TV stations across
20:37
Speaker 5: Fort Worth, and the story quickly spread throughout Texas.
20:42
Speaker 2: We feel that.
20:44
Speaker 7: If this is a case where a lonely person has
20:46
Speaker 7: taken the child, that they would take good care of it.
20:50
Speaker 2: They would love the child.
20:52
Speaker 4: They would see that it was fed properly.
20:55
Speaker 1: At this time, we had no reason to believe that
20:58
Speaker 1: it had been harmed to come to it.
21:01
Speaker 7: And then?
21:01
Speaker 5: A photo of baby Melissa flashes on the television. Has
21:05
Speaker 5: anyone seen this baby? Flyers went up around town, and
21:09
Speaker 5: a police sketch of the woman calling herself Ruth Johnson
21:13
Speaker 5: stared back from storefront windows and telephone poles. Desperate, Alta
21:18
Speaker 5: wrote an open letter, begging the kidnapper to bring Melissa home.
21:22
Speaker 5: Whoever has my baby, please bring her back to me.
21:26
Speaker 5: I've pleaded with you so many times before on television, radio,
21:29
Speaker 5: and by the papers. So far, you've not even tried
21:33
Speaker 5: to call. I'm begging you again for the return of
21:36
Speaker 5: my little girl. You must realize that I've been going
21:39
Speaker 5: out of my mind with worry, wondering where my baby
21:42
Speaker 5: is and how she's doing. You could have at least
21:45
Speaker 5: called to let me know she's okay. I would forget
21:48
Speaker 5: about your kidnapping Melissa in a minute if you would
21:51
Speaker 5: just bring her back. She had nowhere to turn, and
21:56
Speaker 5: almost no one could truly grasp what she was living through.
21:59
Speaker 5: The only thing that gave her a sliver of hope
22:02
Speaker 5: was knowing that the police and FBI were working Melissa's case.
22:06
Speaker 5: But the FBI soon turned to her, asking Alta what
22:11
Speaker 5: she knew about Ruth and about the circumstances that led
22:14
Speaker 5: to Melissa's disappearance. Did Alta have something to do with this?
22:21
Speaker 8: The FBI wanted to question me and talk to me
22:25
Speaker 8: and find out what was going on and.
22:30
Speaker 8: I guess when something like this happens, you always think, well,
22:35
Speaker 8: does she have something to do with it?
22:40
Speaker 4: So I went through a lot.
22:42
Speaker 5: Authorities had hit a brick wall. The name Ruth Johnson
22:45
Speaker 5: hadn't registered in police databases, and Carol was the only
22:48
Speaker 5: one that had actually seen the woman. Few new leads
22:51
Speaker 5: were coming in, and Alta suddenly found herself as a
22:55
Speaker 5: suspect in her own daughter's kidnapping.
22:58
Speaker 7: I remember.
23:00
Speaker 9: When we finally went to a club, after I could
23:04
Speaker 9: get out of the house, I said, we've got to
23:06
Speaker 9: get out, we've got to get out.
23:07
Speaker 2: We went to a club.
23:09
Speaker 9: We got attacked that night by a group of people
23:11
Speaker 9: at the club because they recognized her. We left because
23:15
Speaker 9: they were calling us whores and baby killers and just mean.
23:21
Speaker 2: I was horrible.
23:22
Speaker 5: Even her own family began to question her.
23:25
Speaker 8: Because of a niece.
23:29
Speaker 6: Dad.
23:30
Speaker 4: I was interviewed, and she said, well, it would be
23:33
Speaker 4: just like Alvin to do something like that.
23:36
Speaker 8: So I didn't have anybody to go to. My family
23:41
Speaker 8: was all looking at me like, I went in. The
23:46
Speaker 8: police called. They said, we've got some articles of clothing
23:50
Speaker 8: here that possibly could be hers. So I went down
23:54
Speaker 8: to the police station.
23:56
Speaker 4: None of it was hers.
23:58
Speaker 6: None of it.
24:00
Speaker 8: And, you know, because they couldn't come up with anything,
24:03
Speaker 8: I guess they, I look suspicious, I guess.
24:06
Speaker 6: I don't know.
24:07
Speaker 8: And they kept grilling me and, you know, having me
24:10
Speaker 8: tell the story over and over again.
24:11
Speaker 4: I told the same thing over and over and over
24:14
Speaker 4: and over again.
24:16
Speaker 5: One moment stood out. An interview with a local Fort
24:19
Speaker 5: Worth television reporter. What viewers saw unsettled people watching at
24:23
Speaker 5: home and even prompted quiet concern among authorities. Some began
24:29
Speaker 5: to question whether this young woman could have played a
24:31
Speaker 5: role in her daughter's disappearance. At the time, she was
24:36
Speaker 5: facing a cascade of pressures. A pending divorce, mounting financial strain,
24:42
Speaker 5: and a colicky baby who had left her severely sleep-deprived.
24:46
Speaker 5: To some, it raised the unsettling possibility that exhaustion and
24:50
Speaker 5: desperation may have led to a tragic decision. Much of
24:57
Speaker 5: that suspicion centered on Alta's own statements and her reactions
25:01
Speaker 5: as she delivered them.
25:04
Speaker 2: Do you think you'll see Melissa again?
25:08
Speaker 6: Well, I can't give up hope. I've got to keep hoping,
25:11
Speaker 6: I guess. I want to see her. I've gotten to
25:15
Speaker 6: see her again. I just can't give up hope. I....
25:22
Speaker 4: I don't know what to think. Sometimes I think I
25:26
Speaker 4: may never see her again.
25:28
Speaker 5: In the video, Alta appears to give a slight smile
25:31
Speaker 5: at the corner of her mouth when the question is asked.
25:35
Speaker 5: Her response comes across as detached, almost emotionally vacant, as
25:40
Speaker 5: if the gravity of the situation fails to reach her.
25:43
Speaker 5: The expression lingered just long enough to raise questions. Questions
25:47
Speaker 5: about whether grief had given way to something else entirely.
25:51
Speaker 5: As days turned into weeks, Alta had little choice but
25:55
Speaker 5: to try to return to some semblance of normal life.
25:59
Speaker 5: But her life continued to go downhill.
26:02
Speaker 4: I just went back to work.
26:05
Speaker 8: Couldn't keep my mind on my job. The boss talked
26:09
Speaker 8: to me. He said, you've got to do better. I said,
26:12
Speaker 8: I know. I don't know if I got fired from
26:16
Speaker 8: that job or if I quit. And I don't remember
26:19
Speaker 8: how I lived. I just, I don't remember.
26:24
Speaker 5: The weeks slowly turned into months, and still there was
26:27
Speaker 5: no sign of Melissa. Alta struggled to cope and slipped
26:32
Speaker 5: into a deep depression. She felt in her heart that
26:35
Speaker 5: Melissa was gone, that she was never coming back.
26:39
Speaker 4: I got messed up on drugs, and I mean, I
26:43
Speaker 4: started hanging around with the wrong crowd. They all did drugs.
26:47
Speaker 4: They all drank. And I just hung around with them and.
26:53
Speaker 8: Burned the drugs on just to help me to cope
26:57
Speaker 8: and I went through a real bad time after that
27:01
Speaker 8: but then I got.
27:02
Speaker 4: A hold of myself.
27:03
Speaker 5: Again more than a year after Melissa vanished Alter realized
27:08
Speaker 5: that she had no choice but to live or fall
27:11
Speaker 5: further into addiction and depression her ex-husband Jeffrey who had
27:15
Speaker 5: since remarried was still a musician playing clubs back in
27:18
Speaker 5: Chicago however his second marriage didn't last long and he
27:23
Speaker 5: had come back into the picture.
27:25
Speaker 7: About a year and a half later, after I was
27:28
Speaker 7: beat up by this and that, you know how things
27:32
Speaker 7: get you and heartache comes in and the things don't
27:37
Speaker 7: seem to be as fulfilling as you once thought, I
27:41
Speaker 7: give my heart to the Lord. I repented of my sins.
27:47
Speaker 7: A lot of the things that I've seen that I
27:49
Speaker 7: had done earlier, I regretted and it was so devastating
27:54
Speaker 7: on me that I I had a hard time in
27:57
Speaker 7: my head, mentally.
28:02
Speaker 4: He had got right with God.
28:05
Speaker 8: And he would start calling me and saying, you know,
28:10
Speaker 8: you're still my wife. And one day he showed out
28:13
Speaker 8: of the blue and came down to Texas. And I
28:17
Speaker 8: was at a place right then where I was okay.
28:21
Speaker 4: I was doing okay. And I had forgotten about Jeff.
28:25
Speaker 4: I mean, I was living my life.
28:28
Speaker 8: He kept bugging me, and I was getting kind of
28:32
Speaker 8: aggravated because I didn't want anything to do with him.
28:34
Speaker 4: Anymore, you know? And I blamed him partly for Melissa.
28:42
Speaker 8: If we hadn't gotten divorced or separated, it would have
28:47
Speaker 8: never happened. He never called once, not once, after it happened.
28:54
Speaker 8: Didn't care. I hated him. I blamed him for every
29:00
Speaker 8: bad thing that happened to me.
29:05
Speaker 5: Eventually, Jeffrey and Alta remarried and had four more children together.
29:10
Speaker 5: Life moved on because it had to, but Melissa was
29:13
Speaker 5: never far from their thoughts. Over time, the trail went cold,
29:18
Speaker 5: and Alta's hope of ever seeing her firstborn again slowly disappeared.
29:23
Speaker 5: Jeffrey chose to tell their younger children about Melissa only
29:27
Speaker 5: when he believed they were old enough to grasp what
29:29
Speaker 5: had happened. That somewhere out there was a missing piece
29:33
Speaker 5: of their family. Alta never wanted to talk about it.
29:37
Speaker 7: I just let them know that they had another sister
29:39
Speaker 7: somewhere that she had been kidnapped. I showed them pictures,
29:44
Speaker 7: showed them news articles. They knew all along that they
29:48
Speaker 7: had another sister.
29:50
Speaker 5: Baby Melissa became a kind of presence and a ghost
29:54
Speaker 5: at the same time. They spoke of her and marked
29:57
Speaker 5: her birthday each year. a quiet ritual that reminded them
30:01
Speaker 5: of how tragedy had shaped their family's story. But the
30:06
Speaker 5: fragile peace didn't hold. The marriage buckled under the constant
30:09
Speaker 5: pressure of unspoken blame and grief. Alta retreated emotionally, and
30:15
Speaker 5: the marriage ended for the second time.
30:18
Speaker 7: In 1998, I just walked away from the marriage. I
30:23
Speaker 7: had it. I had it. I walked away with I
30:27
Speaker 7: let her have everything. I walked away from it.
30:52
Speaker 10: When you're a kid, you dream of winning the lottery.
30:55
Speaker 10: You know, what would I do if I won $ 20 million,
30:58
Speaker 10: $ 100 million? As a kid, I would fantasize, what would
31:04
Speaker 10: I do if I found my sister? What would that
31:07
Speaker 10: moment be like if somehow we found her, we were
31:11
Speaker 10: united with my sister? How would that feel?
31:15
Speaker 5: Jeff Highsmith is the youngest of the Highsmith children. He
31:19
Speaker 5: grew up hearing of Melissa, this infant sister who'd been
31:22
Speaker 5: taken from their family. Though he never knew her, He
31:26
Speaker 5: couldn't get her out of his mind.
31:28
Speaker 10: We grew up in a very, I said strict home,
31:33
Speaker 10: religious home. So I ran away from religion because it
31:37
Speaker 10: was forced on us. I did everything under the sun
31:40
Speaker 10: to get away from it. Well, I came back to
31:44
Speaker 10: it when I was 18.
31:46
Speaker 5: In Jeff's case, it would take something monumental happening to
31:50
Speaker 5: change his views.
31:52
Speaker 10: It was June 21st. 6, 1998, I was in a
31:57
Speaker 10: horrible car accident. I was driving back on a Thursday
32:01
Speaker 10: night to Fort Worth and I fell asleep at the
32:04
Speaker 10: wheel going 100 miles an hour and I flew out
32:06
Speaker 10: of the windshield. They airlifted me to Tyler, Texas. I
32:11
Speaker 10: had died on the operating table. They had to resuscitate me.
32:16
Speaker 10: I was given EKGs, MRIs, CAT scans, blood work, urine tests,
32:22
Speaker 10: every kind of physical tests they can do. And I
32:26
Speaker 10: had three specialist doctors in my room and they were
32:30
Speaker 10: bewildered because I had no broken bones, no internal bleedings,
32:33
Speaker 10: no concussions, nothing physically broken. You know, and they were,
32:39
Speaker 10: they didn't understand it. I flew out of the windshield
32:41
Speaker 10: to go in a hundred miles an hour. I landed
32:42
Speaker 10: 75 feet on the highway. They were just completely baffled.
32:46
Speaker 10: These specialist doctors, one from Dallas, he came and told
32:52
Speaker 10: to do all kinds of tests on me. They couldn't
32:54
Speaker 10: figure it out.
32:55
Speaker 4: And he said, it's.
32:56
Speaker 10: Only a miracle. I don't have any other explanation.
33:00
Speaker 5: Jeff Highsmith Jr. 's miraculous survival at 18 not only
33:04
Speaker 5: gave him a profound respect for life, but it also
33:07
Speaker 5: cemented in him that God was real.
33:11
Speaker 10: I was so thankful that I was alive. I couldn't
33:14
Speaker 10: believe it. I couldn't believe that God had spared me
33:17
Speaker 10: as a kid. And I'm just crying, tears running down
33:21
Speaker 10: my eyes. And I lifted up my hands and I said, God,
33:23
Speaker 10: as long as I have breath, I will forever praise
33:26
Speaker 10: you for saving my life.
33:29
Speaker 5: Though bruised and battered, swollen, scraped up, and in immense pain,
33:34
Speaker 5: Jeff walked away intact and made a full recovery. Accepting
33:38
Speaker 5: God into his heart was a decision that he feels
33:42
Speaker 5: changed the entire trajectory of his life.
33:49
Speaker 10: I had a vision, what I believe was the vision
33:51
Speaker 10: from God. I was in this huge auditorium on a
33:55
Speaker 10: platform and there was video cameras, flash photography pointing at me.
34:01
Speaker 10: Every one of my family members was in the audience.
34:05
Speaker 10: My mom and dad and all my sisters and sitting
34:08
Speaker 10: next to them were their children. My sister Melissa was
34:11
Speaker 10: there with her kids. I couldn't make out her face,
34:14
Speaker 10: but I knew my spirit was her. And a light
34:19
Speaker 10: like a spotlight shined from the ceiling on me. And
34:22
Speaker 10: I believe I heard the voice of God tell me,
34:24
Speaker 10: I will bring healing and restoration to your family. I
34:28
Speaker 10: will find Melissa. I will use you to do it
34:31
Speaker 10: and I will get the glory for it. And then
34:35
Speaker 10: they just went away and I came to myself and
34:37
Speaker 10: I opened up my eyes. Like what just happened? I
34:42
Speaker 10: never told anybody, never once told anybody about my wife
34:46
Speaker 10: after we were married. That's just for me and God.
34:49
Speaker 10: I'm going to leave that alone, and we'll see what
34:51
Speaker 10: God does with that.
34:53
Speaker 5: Unsure what to do with this vision, Jeff tucked it
34:56
Speaker 5: away and waited for a sign. By 2017, he'd gotten married,
35:02
Speaker 5: and Alta moved in with him, his wife Rachel, and
35:05
Speaker 5: their newborn son. And the sign that Jeff had been
35:08
Speaker 5: waiting decades for finally came calling.
35:16
Speaker 10: About a month after our son was born, my mom's
35:20
Speaker 10: brother dies. So my mom and me and Rachel are
35:25
Speaker 10: at his funeral. And after the funeral, one of my
35:28
Speaker 10: other uncles, my mom's brother, Uncle Perry, is talking with us.
35:33
Speaker 10: And Uncle Perry had a twin daughter that was murdered.
35:36
Speaker 10: And he never got closure. And he said, you know, Jeff,
35:40
Speaker 10: he said, maybe, you know, it's time for you to,
35:45
Speaker 10: Put Melissa to rest for the family's sake. Hold a
35:49
Speaker 10: memorial or a vigil and just let it go. Get
35:53
Speaker 10: that closure for your family. And he said, maybe look
35:56
Speaker 10: for her one last time and just try to pursue.
35:59
Speaker 10: And if you can't do anything, no new leads. Just grieve, weep,
36:05
Speaker 10: and put it to rest.
36:06
Speaker 5: Jeff's wife, Rachel, remembers this as a turning point.
36:09
Speaker 4: We immediately said, we said, okay.
36:13
Speaker 8: We didn't understand what we were saying okay to, but yeah,
36:16
Speaker 8: we said okay. And then we talked about it, trying
36:19
Speaker 8: to figure out, well, how do we realistically do that?
36:23
Speaker 3: The first thing that Jeff does, he found this show
36:28
Speaker 3: on TLC called My Long Lost Family. This is really
36:32
Speaker 3: when the DNA starts beginning to be like a big thing,
36:36
Speaker 3: like ancestry is really starting to kind of come up.
36:40
Speaker 5: Jeff, Rachel, and Alta were interviewed for the show The
36:43
Speaker 5: episode never aired, but something far more consequential happened behind
36:48
Speaker 5: the scenes. A DNA sample was taken from Alta and
36:52
Speaker 5: entered into a national database. Jeff and Rachel grew increasingly
36:56
Speaker 5: determined to find Melissa. They created a Facebook group and
37:00
Speaker 5: began reaching out to television stations and podcasts in search
37:03
Speaker 5: of exposure.
37:05
Speaker 4: A Fort Worth family is hoping someone can solve the
37:08
Speaker 4: longtime mystery of a baby girl who was apparently kidnapped.
37:12
Speaker 10: I think all of us, all those kids have dreamed
37:14
Speaker 10: about meeting her, being able to say hello, we're here.
37:17
Speaker 2: We've always loved you.
37:18
Speaker 7: The family has always held out hope Melissa is still alive.
37:22
Speaker 8: I am here with Jeff Highsmith, the brother of Melissa Highsmith.
37:27
Speaker 1: A kidnapped baby in Fort Worth 50 years ago remains
37:30
Speaker 1: one of the oldest missing person cases in the country.
37:32
Speaker 10: Her brother, though, still believes that his sister is out there.
37:36
Speaker 10: I told my mom as long as I have breath
37:38
Speaker 10: in my body, I'm not going to stop looking.
37:45
Speaker 5: Decades after she went missing, could they finally find baby Melissa?
37:52
Speaker 5: This season on Babies.
37:55
Speaker 3: I asked her, why do I not have a birth certificate?
37:58
Speaker 3: They decided to take me out of school and to
38:00
Speaker 3: just lock me in my room. She had, unfortunately, not
38:03
Speaker 3: a very good home life. I ran as fast as
38:06
Speaker 3: I could and jumped in the first car that I could.
38:08
Speaker 4: I had to get away.
38:10
Speaker 10: I created a Facebook page called Helping Find Melissa.
38:13
Speaker 7: We was desperately looking for Melissa.
38:17
Speaker 10: It took toll on our marriage and on our kid.
38:21
Speaker 10: We just wanted to find my sister.
38:23
Speaker 4: You robbed someone of their child, their whole life.
38:26
Speaker 7: You robbed everything from them.
38:28
Speaker 3: I felt like I had lost my purpose. I just
38:31
Speaker 3: didn't want to live anymore.
38:33
Speaker 10: There's a chance that my sister's alive.
38:37
Speaker 5: This is it.
38:38
Speaker 10: I'm going to find her.
38:43
Speaker 5: Baby is a production of Particle Entertainment and Waveland. The
38:47
Speaker 5: series was created and written by Sean Kipe and Jason Hoke.
38:50
Speaker 5: and the original music score was produced by Sean Kipe.
38:54
Speaker 5: Cover art and design by Rhys Ladano. A special thanks
38:57
Speaker 5: to the Highsmith family for their participation. For more on
39:00
Speaker 5: Melissa's story, including never-before-seen family pictures and videos, visit babythepodcast.com.
39:07
Speaker 5: Don't forget to subscribe to the show, and if you
39:09
Speaker 5: loved Baby, please rate and review it on the podcast
39:12
Speaker 5: app of your choice. Follow me on social media at
39:16
Speaker 5: Sean Kipe Official, or visit particleentertainment.com. Follow Waveland at Waveland
39:23
Speaker 5: Media on Instagram or visit Waveland.media. And as always, thanks
39:28
Speaker 5: for listening.