FORT SMITH, Ark. — A Fort Smith documentary crew who is investigating the murder of 19-year-old Melissa Witt is comparing her murder to the murder of another murdered 19-year-old.
Larry Swearingen is currently on death row for the rape and murder of Melissa Trotter. Trotter was a community college student who disappeared from campus on Dec. 8, 1998. Trotter's body was found on Jan. 2, 1999, in a national forest, according to the crew. The 19-year-old had been strangled.
The group compared Trotter's murder to the murder of Melissa Witt, in a blog post. According to the team from Cold Case Investigations, the murders are eerily similar.
Melissa Witt was also a college student who was murdered. Witt was abducted from the Bowling World parking lot on Dec. 1, 1994, and her nude body was found in a national forest, after missing for more than a month. Though the cases appear to be similar, unlike Trotter's case, Witt's killer has not been found.
The documentary crew can be reached on their Facebook page by clicking here.