The case of Melanie Ethier: Episode 4

June 29, 2021·52 min·4 clips

Dennis LeVay's own daughter says that on the day of his stroke, her father admitted his decades-old fishing trip alibi for Melanie Ethier's disappearance was a lie.

Jocelyn Martell is finally speaking. She says she was on her mother-in-law's porch the morning Melanie Ethier went missing, and that Dennis LaVey was the one who told her Mel was missing. He showed up at the house acting strange. Her account does not explode the case open, but it does put Dennis into that morning in a way the host has to sit with. Then Celine talks about her father. She remembers questioning him and seeing him get sweaty, defensive, and physically unsettled before she left. The goodbye felt ordinary at the time. About four hours later, she says, Dennis had a massive stroke. Celine says her boyfriend found him unconscious on the living room floor. After that, his speech was gone. Any chance to ask him clearly about Melanie's disappearance shrank into fragments, repeated words, and hospital-room moments where answers could not quite form. Celine never asked the central question. She tells the host the possibility that her father was involved only became real to her on the day of his stroke. That is the hard part. She is left with suspicion, grief, and the memory that Dennis never clearly denied killing Mel in the conversation she describes. The host handles it carefully. He repeats back the point that matters and keeps separating what Celine knows from what she wishes she had asked. Dennis died on January 8th, 2016. David Ridgen then returns to the practical work: reaching Andre, checking Dennis's alibi, and following Andre, Jason, and Joel across the weekend Melanie disappeared. The episode stays quiet and tense. Porch memories, family unease, a last exchange between father and daughter, and one stubborn question: who was where?

As heard by us

A careful missing-persons episode that values restraint over spectacle.

The episode stays close to the people most directly tied to Melanie Ethier's disappearance, with Jocelyn Martell's first-hand account carrying much of the weight and Dennis LeVay still surrounded by unsettled questions. That narrow focus works.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a careful missing-persons investigation built from first-hand accounts and hard questions.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Next Call