MURDERED: Melanie Howell

The gist

Melanie Howell's murder went unsolved for nearly 40 years despite a bloody fingerprint left at the crime scene. After advanced fingerprint technology became available in 2014, detective Martin Mojaro identified the killer as Paul Bustamante—but kept the name secret from other investigators for privacy reasons. The investigation later revealed Bustamante was also responsible for the 1977 murder of Elizabeth Wolfe, a teacher in Davis, California, suggesting he may be a serial killer with additional unidentified victims.

Key takeaways

• Melanie Howell, 22, was stabbed 47 times on April 23, 1976, in her UCLA-area apartment while in the middle of moving; a neighbor witnessed a man leaving with a black briefcase, likely carrying the murder weapon
• Bustamante may have stalked Melanie for days—her boyfriend chased a peeping tom from her window two nights before the murder, and Bustamante used a briefcase (possibly posing as a salesman) to gain entry
• Elizabeth Wolfe, 27, was stabbed 14 times just two days after moving to Davis for a teaching job in 1977; no sexual assault occurred in either case, and both victims had just relocated
• Paul Bustamante had an extensive rap sheet dating to 1968 (armed robbery, burglary, theft) and served in the U.S. Army in Germany (1966-1968), which may have provided combat training
• Bustamante married a UC Davis sociology PhD student in 1972 who studied female criminality and taught prison inmates—they divorced in 1975, one year before Melanie's murder
• The killer died in 2006 and was cremated by 2009, destroying any possibility of DNA comparison to other cold cases Detective Mojaro suspects Bustamante may have committed
• The fingerprint technology available before 2010 was too primitive to identify Bustamante when the crimes occurred; both cases remained unsolved until prints were rerun in 2011-2014
• Crime Junkie is actively seeking information about other potential victims or anyone with knowledge of Bustamante's whereabouts between 1977-2006

Notable quotes

• "I have never heard a story that starts like this. One of our reporters reached out to an LAPD cold case guy to ask him about an unsolved case from the seventies. And he's like, oh, that case that case is actually solved. But he couldn't tell us who did it." — Ashley Flowers

• "Yes. He thinks the only reason investigators haven't connected him to other cases is because they don't have that DNA." — Ashley Flowers, on Detective Mojaro's assessment of Bustamante as a serial killer

Worth a full listen?

Listen to the full episode if you're interested in how cold cases are solved through advancing technology and want to hear detailed investigative work connecting two murders across California—otherwise, the TLDR covers the essential facts and outcome.