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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 they'd 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't mean that you cannot prosecute a murder case. it does, of course, complicate it. >> but it was g...

Sign. >> i said, "well, he probably burned the house himself to cover evidence." >> now the investigation into shannon's 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. he's going to get out of jail at the end of december 2003. >> during hinton's time behind bars, the fbi kept working on the case, building up more and more circumstantial evidence against him. >> it seemed like it was just esca...

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 -- shannon's 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 insurance fraud case in 2003. it would take another few months before law enforcement finally arres...