John Petrey News Today

Chattanooga, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways.

11Alive talked with Luis Melendi Friday evening just before NBC aired a Dateline episode about the case of his daughter, Shannon.

Courtroom, i was thinking in my head, 50/50 chance, this is the way it could go. >> there he was, the onetime delta airlines maintenance worker theyd had in their sights for years. yvonne, this is your first chance to really see him, huh? >> well -- you know, the -- the old saying, if -- if looks could kill, he would have been dead on the spot. >> dekalb county prosecutor john petrey had a daunting task ahead, the first case in georgia with no crime scene, no body. >> the absence of a body doesn...

Sign. >> i said, "well, he probably burned the house himself to cover evidence." >> now the investigation into shannons disappearance had a deadly clock ticking till his release. >> the case is still open at that point in time. and we realize that no new leads are coming in, and we decide at that point in time that this is a time when butch is going to get out of jail. hes going to get out of jail at the end of december 2003. >> during hintons time behind bars, the fbi kept working on the case, ...

Free to move to georgia, free to get those jobs at delta airlines and the softball field, and free to meet shannon in march 1994. as john petrey studied the files, he realized there was a lot there, but with one huge challenge -- shannons body had never been found. but this prosecutor wanted to take a chance. >> this is the kinda case that you look at and you say, "i want one of those." >> i can make a difference here. >> yes, i can make a difference. >> hinton was released from prison for that ...

Didnt you have? >> well, we never really had much at all until the u.s. attorneys office did, in fact, bring the boxes to us. and i was able to find an empty store room in the courthouse and created, what i called, a war room for this case. so i buried myself in this office, started going through the file. >> one thing was clear, hinton had been their key suspect early on because he had a criminal record. as petrey began poring through the file, he came across a name, tammy singleton. she sat do...

47abc December 28, 2020 SALISBURY, Md. – A local church is trying to help out a Salisbury family of seven, who had a tree crash through their home, Christmas eve. Natasha Owens and her five kids were inside of the home when the tree came crashing down.  Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the home is condemned until it can be fixed. Allen Memorial Baptist Church, helped get the family into a motel for a few nights, but come Tuesday, they’ll have to find another place else to stay. Now a volu...