True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: Murderer Caught On Video - The Heartbreaking Case of Melanie Goodwin | True Crime Stories

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

The story of Melanie Goodwin continues as True Crime with Kimbyr dives deeper into the unanswered questions and troubling details surrounding her final hours. What happened after midnight, and who last saw Melanie alive? In Part 2, True Crime with Kimbyr carefully examines timelines, key moments, and the emotional impact left behind in this devastating Texas case. With compassion and detailed analysis, this episode seeks clarity in the darkness — and confronts the heartbreaking reality behind a promising life cut short. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peggy also provided Detective Freid with Melanie's bank statements. And there was a transaction that was made at the quick trip in the early morning hours around 1.30 a.m. They were pressing Ali pretty hard. Own it all. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history.

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And I know it can be faked, and I know people react differently depending on who they are, but there was just this look, this confused look on his face, a disbelief and shock and sadness. But we know investigators still have to confirm everything. But as it stands, they need to put their suspicions on hold because they have evidence that can truly point them in the right direction. And that is the surveillance footage from the quick trip because now they know she was there. And they know what time she was there.

They immediately go to that location and ask for their surveillance. Now, the interesting thing about this particular location was that it was brand new and it had high tech video surveillance systems. It was way better quality than I've seen in any of the cases that I've covered. It had at least four cameras that showed the inside of the entire store. And sure enough, as they're looking over that footage, they can see Melanie as clear as can be. They were 100% sure that this was her on camera. This innocent stop at a convenience store was the last place Melanie would ever be seen alive by anyone. And detectives had to know what transpired in that store.

Who did she cross paths with? This was a place that university students frequented. It was a well-lit area. They see Melanie making her way into the convenience store. She goes over to several different areas grabbing things that she needs, making her way to the refrigerator where she got that chocolate milk. It is clear to see what she's wearing. A jeans skirt, a navy blue shirt with a white garment underneath, a white headband, earrings.

Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail. And in this version of the surveillance footage, it looks to me like she's wearing wedges of some kind for shoes. They look like they're white in color. She also has a purse on her right arm. This convenience store is pretty much empty when they're looking at this footage. However, somebody comes through that door. And immediately, what he's wearing catches Detective Freid's eyes. A striped white short-sleeved shirt, long-jean shorts and white shoes.

This immediately piques his interest because this matches what we saw in that grainy black-and-white surveillance video from the TransTech parking lot, where that explosion happened. I'm going to show you right on the screen here. This is what he was looking at. And you can tell it's a very similar outfit. At this point, Detective Freid is actually positive. 100% positive that this is the man he saw driving that red Saturn into that parking lot.

He's positive. He doesn't even need to see more, but of course we know they have to have all the evidence possible to connect this person to the crime. That's imperative. No matter what his gut feeling is telling him, or his experience, or even his eyes. Now, what's interesting is that they want to find out when this man first came into the store,

because it looked like, as they were scrubbing through the footage before they came to Melanie, that they had seen him before. So they rewind the footage. Sure enough, he had actually been in that store for over an hour and a half before Melanie even arrived. So what is going on here? Who is this man? He's seen walking up and down different. aisles walking in the front of the store, looking outside like he's waiting for someone,

then walking in and out, back and forth. He's also seen talking to the clerk. And there is a section on the video where the clerk is handing him a phone, a phone that belongs to the business, a cordless phone that he's borrowing to make some phone calls. But to who they don't know yet, detectives want to get a hold of the store clerk because they definitely want to know if he knew this person. Why was he letting him borrow the phone? There were other things too that the clerk was doing for him. So they had a lot of questions and luckily they're able to get a hold of him. He goes by the name Chin. Chin explained that this guy came in. He doesn't know him and he just kept roaming around the store bothering him. Apparently according to Chin, this guy didn't seem to have any money and from what

he could ascertain from listening in and also the guy telling him, he had nowhere to go that night. He didn't have money or a ride or anything to eat. And he was calling people asking if they would come pick him up and nobody would. So Chin kind of felt bad for the guy. He actually gave him some of his own food that he brought from home to work. And he bought him a fountain drink and let him use the phone. But then Chin said the guy said something really weird that kind of freaked him out. He asked if he could sleep there. And Chin's like, no. Why would you need to need to? sleep here? Like, what kind of question is that? It's a very weird question. He also said, this isn't a hotel and you probably shouldn't be lingering around here because the police

tend to be pretty active around this campus store and they're not very nice to people who are like loitering and that he should probably like move on, you know? He's already given him something to eat, a drink, a phone. What else does this man expect to get from this store clerk? But the guy tells him, well, I'm not going to leave. unless someone kicks me out. And he starts to confide in Chen, telling him about his life. It's nothing that Chin wanted to hear,

but it's not like he could really do much. There wasn't any security there or anything to kick him out. Between customers, this man is telling Chen things like he broke his girlfriend's phone the other day and how he needs to learn how to control his temper and that he had some pending arrest and some warrants out for him. But he didn't divulge what they were for.

At one point he walks out of the store, but investigators see the most moment that this guy's eyes met Melanie. He targeted Melanie. He was pacing outside the front of the store and as soon as she walks in, he makes his way back toward the door and it was like he made a bee-in-line towards her. The amazing thing about this new technology was that it didn't just capture video, it captured audio. So detectives were not just able to see what was going on, but they were able to listen to the words that were exchanged between this man and Melanie herself. It was as though Melanie was helping detectives

solve her own case. Well, the clerk provided them with just a little bit of a lead as to what was being said because he said he heard this man asking Melanie for a ride. And he could also hear her saying no. But of course, investigators wanted to confirm that for themselves. And they wanted to know if any other words were exchanged between the two of them.

Even with it being enhanced as much as possible, you could barely make out what was being said. But detectives wouldn't give up. They listened to it again and again and again. And they were finally able to make out some of what the man was saying. He was trying to convince Melanie to give him a ride somewhere. He even said something like, you know what, just drop me off over here and I'll walk the rest of the way. And Melanie can be heard saying no repeatedly.

But he kept giving her a sob story. He told her things like my truck broke down. I would walk, but like these shoes aren't good for walking, things like that. He even said, listen, it's just up to McKinney Street, just a quarter of a mile away. But still, Melanie did the right thing to keep herself as safe as possible. And she said no. And then she does something that most of us do, or at least some of us, I know I do. When she turns her back away from this man, she gets on the phone.

She lets her boyfriend know that she was on her way. And I can't know for sure whether she was hoping that this strange guy would hear her. But I know I purposely jump on the phone when I feel in. or scared. They even have this citizen app now where someone can stay on the phone with you until your home safely. Whatever the reason may have been, phone records and the footage confirm that Melanie called Ali while she was paying for the snacks and the stranger walked out of the door. Ali said that phone call consisted of Melanie telling him she would be home soon and to please leave the door unlocked so that she could come right inside. But we know

that never happened. So what happened after this call? The quick trip camera catches her walking out the door but it also catches something else. The strange man. If you look to the right in the corner of the screen, just as Melanie is walking out, she's basically intercepted by the same man that was begging her for a ride inside. That is when their paths crossed. Unfortunately, Unfortunately, there wasn't any footage available at a time about what happened after this very moment. The next time we see who detectives think is the same man is in the TransTech parking lot at 406 AM.

There was a gap. There were 90 minutes that were unaccounted for between this moment and the time that they know Melanie's body was set on fire. Detective Freed needs to get the phone records from the quick trip. He wants to know who the stranger called. Maybe that could lead him to who the stranger was. By the next day, the autopsy was being performed. I was able to get a hold of the documents from the autopsy and I wanted to read them to

you verbatim as they were typed. This report is from the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas, Texas. She was found September 25, 2007 and 1118 a.m. She was examined September 26. at 9 a.m. She was pronounced dead at 3220 Keller Springs Road, Carrollton, Texas. This is what the report says. When first viewed, the decedent is burned over a large portion of her body and is clad in a burned blue-gene skirt, burned thin striped shirt with the word Red Bull, a burned white-brown belt with metallic braids, and panties, which were adhered to the inner aspect of the skirt. The

hands and feet are bagged, jewelry consisted of a white metallic ring with the words Concarino and a heart design. This ring was on the right middle finger. On the right wrist is a black elastic or nylon bracelet and the hair is clasped into an elastic cord. Now going back to the photos for a minute, I have some from that night and you can see what she was wearing even down to the black elastic on her right wrist. There is more to this report but I want to wait a minute to tell you all of the details of what occurred because at this point, Detective Freid is getting in contact with the person whose number was dialed from the quick trip phone. It's a woman. Her name is Andrea. And she explained she was the ex-girlfriend of the man who made the call. And she finally says

his name, Ernesto Reyes. The woman explains that Ernesto has had his fair share of bad luck the last few years and bad luck translates to trouble with the law. But she says, She stood by his side through all of that. However, recently she had enough and they broke up. Then he was kicked out of his mother's house because he beat up his brother with a baseball bat. And she let him stay back at her place until the night before he was seen on that camera at that store. She told him he had to leave because he took her car without asking and he broke her cell phone. So when he made the call from the quick trip, he was desperately trying to find a wrong.

ride and a place to stay. But she did not want him around, so she refused to help him. Now that they have a name, investigators run Ernesto Reyes through their system and they get a hit right away. He's a 20-year-olds with theft and drug charges on his record. At this point in his life, Ernesto is out of work. He doesn't have a car. He doesn't have money. And he doesn't have any friends or family members that are willing to help him. Detectives look at where all of these things are occurred and where he was from and he was from Denton, Texas. So they want to know what he was doing in Carrollton. His ex-girlfriend explained he was actually there because one of his friends had recently moved out that way. His friend's name was Donovan Young. It hadn't even been a full

24 hours, like I told you. Investigators already had the name of the victim and the person that they know committed this crime or they think they know. Now they had to track down or not. They had to track down but they get some bad news from his ex. She said that he left for Mexico. That's where his grandma was living. The border is only around seven hours away driving and I don't know if he drove or flew. I don't know if someone helped him or not, but detectives do confirm that he has entered Mexico. And this is very disheartening. They really don't want this dangerous guy to get away. But they still have one other lead, Donovan Young. So they call him in for questioning. What they hear when he is interrogated is frightening.

Donovan doesn't hesitate. He also has a criminal record, and he doesn't want to make it longer. Remember how that officer found the Saturn parked in this apartment complex? Well, it turns out that was Donovan's place. But he tells investigators he had nothing to do with Melanie's murder. But after you hear where you're about to hear, what he says happens. You tell me what you think, because you know, I love to read your theories, your thoughts, your opinions in the comments.

I try to be here the first two hours after my video posts, and I know I'll see Charles Turner and Rachel Ray and Sarah Kenny and Justin Splitzer. Hope I'm saying that right. Orlando Moda and Tamika Davis. I'll see you there right away, and thank you so much for being the first to comment on like every single video. I notice.

But going back, Donovan Young tells investigators that Ernesto shows up at his apartment at 3 a.m. knocking on the door, telling him something bad, happened. He did something and he needs help. Donovan says being curious, he follows Ernesto out to a red Saturn that was parked outside and he looked inside and he could see a female in the back seat. She had a jeans skirt on and her panties were pulled down. Donovan said her eyes were open, but Ernesto tells him she's dead and that he killed her. What would you do? Because he asked Donovan for help. he needs to get rid of her. And Donovan tells investigators

he told Ernesto he wanted nothing to do with this. But Ernesto was begging his friend for anything. He had nothing and he was frantically trying to figure out what he was going to do. Donovan said Ernesto told him he needed gas money and a gas can.

Donovan told investigators he ends up giving Ernesto a couple dollars and a gas can. So you tell me if this is True. This alone is true. Tell me, did this man have nothing to do with this crime? Because the detective is not buying this story, but it's all they have at this moment.

But why would Donovan give Ernesto what he needs to cover up this crime if Donovan himself had nothing to do with it? Why didn't he call the police? If he had just seen his friend pull up with a dead body in the back of a car, why would he just go back inside and go to bed? Because that's what he says happens. He admits, regrets not calling the police. He probably chose to to keep himself out of trouble. But this lack of action will leave the door open for Ernesto to tell his own version of events, ones that are very different from the way Donovan says that things happened. But they still don't have Ernesto in custody. However, they did have more evidence piling up in the form of additional video footage from two other stores. One hour after leaving the quick trip, Ernesto is caught on a camera at a Chevron,

but it's closed. It's a gas station. He's trying to buy gas. The camera actually catches him in the parking lot. He pulls in backwards, probably trying to avoid anyone seeing Melanie in the backseat. He's also seen taking off his shirt and turning it inside out and then putting it back on after he looked at his reflection in the store window. Detectives believe he did this for one of two reasons. One, because it was blood visible in his shirt or he was trying to disguise himself by appearing to be wearing a different shirt. Either way, he is clearly identified in this video. He leaves because he can't get gas and another camera spots him at a 7-11 gas station nearby where he walks in with the red gas can in his hand, even places it down on the countertop where he buys a dollar and 76 cents worth of

gasoline. And that's all he needed to carry out what we already saw on that chilling video from the trans tech parking lot. But at the 7-11, he's seen at the pump filling up the gas can and even asked a stranger if he could borrow their cell phone, just acting calmly like nothing happened. The last time we see Ernesto is when he lights Melanie's remains down in the bankment in Carrollton at 4.06 a.m. It would take the U.S. Marshals two weeks to track him down and finally extradite him back to Texas to stand trial for Melanie's murder. They found him at his grandmother's house, but by the time they got all the right documents and the authority to make an arrest, he was gone. But it didn't take long for them to spot him once again. But even though they were

finally able to catch him, the only issue is that Mexico doesn't have capital punishment. So they would not allow Ernesto to be taken back to Texas unless prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. And that was a tough decision because they fully intended to go that route. But they decided they would rather have him in prison for the rest of his life than to let him escape their grasp. The trial was a year and a half after Melanie's murder. From piecing all the evidence together, the prosecutor and the investigative team believe that Melanie put up a fight for her life.

As small she was, she fought as hard as she could. And there's evidence that shows the most likely scenarios that she fought so hard that she was actually able to get away from Renesto at one point and run. Reason being, her shoes were not found on her feet. They were not found in the car. they were gone. She ran so hard her shoes came off of her feet. But unfortunately, Ernesto was able to catch up. There is blood on the outside of the vehicle, which is another indication that she had gotten away from him at one point and was outside of her own vehicle.

But they believe she was pulled back inside, and that is where he forced himself upon her. There was blood in the backseat of the vehicle, which was consistent with this theory of events. She had bruises and contusions on the front of her face on her forehead, on the top of her head, on the back of her head, and those were caused from blunt force trauma, which means that she was hit or punched. Some type of force was used against her in those areas as she was trying to get away. There was a large mark on her chest. There was so much force applied to that area. And all of that unrelated to the actual strangulation that occurred.

What they believe is that this was where Ernesto put his knee on top of the area. of her while he was carrying out the rest of his actions. He's applying that force to her neck while applying that knee to her chest. And remember that 90 minutes that was unaccounted for, well, that 90 minutes was what the defense attorneys used to try to create reasonable doubt in Ernesto's case. They argued that there were no eyewitnesses. Nobody saw Ernesto carry out a murder.

That all the evidence was circumstantial. Yes, they agree. It was Ernesto on the camera. At the convenience store, they don't argue against the footage of Ernesto even setting Melanie a blaze. But the defense says that Ernesto was forced to do that. He was forced by Donovan Young. That's right. Remember how I said that Ernesto would tell his own version of events?

Well, there was no way his defense team was going to put him on the stand. They weren't going to open him up to cross-examination because I know from what you are about to hear, and they know from Ernesto's past who he truly is. And he would have probably blown up in anger at the prosecution. And it would have ruined everything for him. Instead, they use sort of a loophole to introduce some evidence of Ernesto telling his story to a media outlet while he was incarcerated in waiting for trial. He had done an interview with Univision partially in Spanish,

and they played it for the jury with a translator explaining what Ernesto said. and I watched the whole thing, and I was physically sick to my stomach. Ernesto, while wearing the black and white striped prison jumpsuit, is on that handheld phone receiver speaking with a reporter through a pain of glass. He told the media, he's not a killer. He never wanted to be, and he never has been, and he was just at the wrong place with the wrong people. It was Donovan who committed the crime, not him.

He says, he asked Melanie for a ride, and she said, where to? And he told her he was headed to his friend's house. Ernesto says that Melanie said yes. She would take him there. But we know from the camera footage that she said no. And she repeated it. And she told Ali she was on her way home. She had a cold chocolate milk in hand.

Something she was bringing home to her boyfriend. It doesn't make sense that she would have agreed to take this detour with a stranger at 2 a.m. But it gets worse. Ernesto actually tells the media that Melanie was asking for trouble. It's victim blaming at its finest. He says, after they get into Melanie's car, she wants drugs, so she asked Ernesto where they could get some.

Really? That is insulting. He wanted to drag this poor woman down to his disgusting level. And later, he will literally drag her to her final resting place. He wanted everyone to believe that this innocent woman who stopped after a long night, standing on her feet for hours, promoting for Red Bull, who's kind enough to stop at the store to get her boyfriend some snacks, actually willingly gets into a car with a stranger, and then proceeds to ask him for drugs.

So what was it that he thought would make us believe it? Was it the short skirt? Was it the fact that she was out late? Did he just assume, like other disgusting monsters, that she was asking for this unwanted attention? no, she wasn't. She was just in the path of a heartless, cold-blooded killer. But he tells the media in this jailhouse interview

that he told her he could get her some weed at his friend's house. So they arrive and Donovan comes out with the weed. Ernesto says he jumps into the back seat while Melanie and Donovan smoked together and take pills. In the front of the guy. Really? Wow. And let me guess that she washed them down with the chocolate milk that she bought for her boyfriend

because it disgusts me that anyone would believe this. story and it gets even more ridiculous. He says all of a sudden a fight broke out and he didn't know what to do. Are you kidding me? He says, I don't know if they were serious or they were just like horse playing, but I was scared. I couldn't even listen to him. He made me so sick and I won't put his voice or his version of these events on my channel because I'm not giving a killer a platform to speak. But he continues to say that he could tell Melanie was hurt and he told Donovan he wound out of the car. he did that, Donovan pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him. Melanie's family, her close friends, her loved ones, had to sit in that courtroom and listen to this garbage. Listening to this man

cut her down and insinuate that she caused her own death by asking for trouble. Melanie's dad said that he sat in that courtroom praying that the jury would be able to see through this man's story, that they would know who Melanie truly was, the kind, loving, sweet girl who innocently walked into that convenience store and crossed paths with the monster. Ernesto went on to say that Donovan forced him to buy gasoline and that he was praying to God to help him because he thought Donovan was going to kill him,

and he had no choice but to get the gas, and it seemed so absurd to me. Clearly, we only see Ernesto at the gas stations. Where was the threat? Where was Donovan? The story continues. He says they went to some warehouse where Donovan told him to put the gas on Melanie while laughing and saying, you do it, you do it. So he did it. Then when the reporter asked him how Melanie actually died, Ernesto said he was high on drugs. But from what he saw, it was just Donovan

hitting her over and over again and then choking her. When I was watching this, all I kept doing was yelling, no, Ernesto, it was you who did that to her. Donovan was indicted for tampering with evidence and he took a deal in exchange for his testimony against Ernesto at trial. He bravely took the sand, although I do not see him as innocent in this crime. He does tell the jury what he told investigators that the only thing he did was give Ernesto money for a gas and a gas can but did not murder Melanie. The prosecution had some damning evidence of their own from Melanie's own car. A car that they showed from pictures was clearly burned in an attempt to get rid of any evidence inside, but Ernesto failed. Donovan told the jury that Ernesto tried twice to blow up Melanie's car. Two times.

He tried putting a sock in the opening to the gas tank and set it on fire, thinking it would blow up the thing, but he was wrong. The windows were rolled up and therefore the lack of oxygen made the fire go out. remember how they found the sock and the gas cap in the apartment parking lot where Melanie's car was parked before it was moved? Well, the car was found not far from the quick trip. The inside was burned. The seats were burned. The door panels were burned. And there was accelerant inside and pieces of burnt paper as well.

There was also burn mark on the gas tank right here where the sock would have been. Ernesto took his sock and the gas cap because he thought it would have his feet. fingerprints or his DNA on it. I also spotted two empty red bull cans in her car, and it made me sad because I can imagine Melanie not having a clue what was going to happen to her that night. Donovan explained Ernesto got a ride back from him, from the scene where the car was burned. And I ask you, and I wish I could ask Donovan, because I didn't see this anywhere, where were you? Why were you able to pick up your friend? Your friend that doesn't. have a phone. So were you really in bed like you say you were after you merely gave him a couple

bucks? Because something doesn't add up at all. How would Donovan know that his buddy needed a ride after 4 a.m. when he tried to burn the car, huh? Tell me, unless he's psychic, he was there when that car was being burned. Why? Prosecutors introduce a digital camera into evidence. It's a camera that they found unharmed in Melanie's car. And on the memory card were a ton of pictures, pictures that she took. Pictures of her life before this monster took it from her. She was smiling and laughing with her friends and hugging her dad on their last family vacation. These were pictures that proved what a vibrant and beautiful person Melanie truly was. The pictures spoke for themselves. They showed the jury how contradictory the picture Ernesto painted of Melanie truly was.

But there was something else on that memory card. Two pictures that Melanie didn't take. Two pictures of Ernesto himself. Selfies that were shot by him after he burned Melanie's body, his face. Just coldly looking right into that camera lens while he's standing outside of Donovan's apartment complex. Ernesto is the one in all of these photos and footage. Where is Donovan? While Ernesto himself tried to answer that question to the media,

in that interview, he actually has the audacity to say, I don't know. I don't know why Donovan was never caught on camera. I don't know why I'm the only one that was ever seen on camera, because Donovan, he was in the backseat the whole time. He was the one giving me orders. While prosecutors went one step further, they had DNA evidence that linked Ernesto to Melanie.

It survived the fire. It was a vaginal swab that they conducted during her autopsy. His semen was found inside her body. But of course, the defense team has an argument, a reasonable explanation about why that DNA was there. And it's not one that anyone close to Melanie wanted to hear. I cringe thinking about her parents having to listen to this, but they once again blame this poor girl.

The defense questioned the medical examiner and asked if there were any signs of force in the pubic area and there were not. There was also no DNA, no skin under her fingernails, and therefore, just because there were no outward signs left behind of a struggle, the defense set forth the claim that Melanie consented to sex with Ernesto. No, no, no, no. They're once again painting this poor girl in such a bad light. Well, to counter this argument, the prosecution calls Melanie's own mother to the stand. Peggy Goodwin. Prosecutor Andrea Hanley asked Peggy whether the daughter that she raised for the last 19 years

would have done the things that Ernesto said she did. Drugs, consensual sex with him. And Peggy said absolutely not. Absolutely not. She even said that we taught her not to accept rides from strangers, not to give strangers rides, and if she had to stop somewhere in the middle of the night, always do it at a well-lit, well-populated area, and that's what it seems like she did. She also gave a reason as to why there may not have been any signs of a struggle.

It was because she was so tiny. I don't know if you remember the story I told you about when Melanie's older brother used to tickle her. He would grab both of her wrists with one of his hands. That's how small they were. Peggy was trying to show that Melanie was no match for someone as big as Ernesto. There was also no evidence of drugs in Melanie's system. So that argument, it was thrown out, at least by the jury,

because they deliberated for only three hours before returning a verdict of guilty. But I'm not done. Just one more thing. Ernesto was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, and Donovan Young received eight years for his involvement in the crime. But outside in that hallway after sentencing, unbelievably, Ernesto's mother and the Goodwin's came face to face with one another. Nobody knew what to expect, but to everyone's surprise, the mothers embraced. Ernesto's mom told Peggy in her arms, sobbing how sorry she was for what

her son had done to their daughter. Peggy did not hesitate to embrace Ernesto's mother. they cried together. And this was captured on video. It was a very emotional moment. Melanie's dad then spoke to Ernesto's mom in Spanish, thanking her for apologizing. And when asked why they were so kind to the mother of a monster that killed their daughter, the Goodwin's explained that they're human. They have compassion. And Melanie was the same way. Peggy said that she had looked over in Ernesto's mom's direction when they were playing the video of the fire and she saw Arnesto's mother crying uncontrollably. Peggy was able to put herself in that mother's shoes as hard as it was. She knew what her son had done and she was sorry for it. And it had me teary

eyed watching that embrace. One of the jurors named Amy told the media that it was what was not caught on video that made her doubt Arnesto's story. They never saw Donovan, especially when that huge fireball filled up the screen, they watch that video numerous times and when it lights up, it lights up the entire car interior and there's no one else inside. Okay, now I couldn't believe this, but I couldn't leave it out either. As much as I hate Ernesto, I look for facts and after digging further into this case, I found a lawsuit that was brought by Melanie's family against the quick trip for wrongful death. In that case, more evidence had been discovered and when the clerk Chin, you remember he had testified to the other trial, he testified in this second trial,

and he had some very interesting things to add about what he saw that night. Now granted, in this second trial, he's on the side of Quick Trip, and he's there witness to prove that the act did not occur on the premises, but it took place elsewhere. So take this how you will, but it is still evidence in a court of law and was presented at trial. It turns out that police had initially believed Melanie was abducted. However, there is evidence to the the contrary. As Melanie is leaving the store, she is heard on camera saying pretty normal. She appeared to be on the phone with her boyfriend. However, remember that Ali stated at Ernesto's trial, that she never told him she was planning on giving Ernesto a ride. Quick Trip was offering

this phrase as evidence of Melanie telling someone, at least that someone was either pretty normal or that something was pretty normal, insinuating that she might have been on the phone with her boyfriend saying, I might give this guy a ride. And maybe someone said, well, what is he like? And she could have said, pretty normal, but she could have been referring to anything we don't know. But there's more. The clerk testified. And when he was questioned about the events of the night, he admitted that Melanie, although seemingly reluctant to give Ernesto a ride at first, he watched Melanie and Ernesto walked towards Melanie's car. She went to the driver's side and Ernesto was kind of in front of the cart first, and then at one point, they drive away together.

To Chin, the clerk, it looked as though Melanie had decided to give Ernesto a ride after all. Plus, before the car leaves that parking lot, Melanie's phone record show a call was made from her phone to one of Ernesto's friends. Presumably Donovan, that information was not provided in this second trial. They did not name said friend. But this shows that Melanie indeed might have done both. to give Ernesto a ride and let him use her phone because the video shows Ernesto going to the passenger side of the car and there was no struggle caught on video at that point when the car left the parking lot. It doesn't change what happened. Ernesto killed Melanie. We don't know what happened after they left Quick Trip, but we know Melanie did not ask for what happened to her even if she may have had compassion and agreed to give Ernesto a ride home. I know that in my heart and And the jury has spoken. They know more evidence than I did

because they were in that courtroom. In closing, I found a Facebook page honoring Melanie in her life. Her mom, Peggy, is one of the admins, although it was created by one of Melanie's friends. And actually, Peggy was pretty reluctant to interact with people on there at first. But now she's on there all the time, keeping her daughter's memory alive.

Sadly, the Goodwin family experienced yet another tragedy in 2016, I believe. Their surviving daughter Candid, Candice, Melanie's older sister, was in a horrific motorcycle accident. Her helmet came off and she suffered a traumatic brain injury. Peggy said that she came home from the hospital in diapers and she was mentally a three-year-old. But the family did everything they could and after four years of treatment, they experienced what Peggy referred to as miracles because Candice is now independent. She can drive. She got married and she has a precious baby boy.

I just want to say that I am so sorry to this family. They've been through so much and they remain so strong. And if you want to join the Facebook group, I have a link in my description box. There are so many precious comments that are made by close friends and family about who Melanie Terese Goodwin was. She was an amazing human being that was taken way too soon. I want to thank you so much. for being here and listening to Melanie's story.

Thank you for watching, and I will see you in my next video. Bye.