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| Source: nbcnews.com |
Melissa Mason and Nicole Glass were brutally murdered inside their Phoenix, Arizona home during December of 2010. The two women were roommates and friends; both also worked as bartenders. Melissa and Nicole were only 27 years-old at the time they were killed. A friend of both women stopped by their East Cambridge Avenue residence on December 3rd, 2010, and made a horrific discovery: Melissa and Nicole were dead. Police were immediately called to the scene, and it was soon determined that the women had been strangled to death. However, there was reportedly "nothing to indicate a violent struggle or fight before their deaths." There were also no signs of forced entry or a robbery.
The case was ruled a triple homicide, as Melissa was eight weeks pregnant at the time of the murders. In fact, Melissa and her boyfriend/father of the child had attended a sonogram appointment the day before the killings. The boyfriend has reportedly been extensively questioned and has taken polygraph tests related to the case. He has never been labeled a suspect.
Several years have passed, and the homicide case remains unsolved. The families of both Melissa and Nicole are left without justice. The murders of Melissa and Nicole have left both loved ones and investigators alike with unanswered questions: who killed these young women? And why?
More about Melissa and Nicole.
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| Source: thedeckpodcast.com |
Melissa and Nicole met five years before their murders when they both worked as bartenders at an adult nightclub in Phoenix. The two became best friends and, eventually, roommates. Nicole purchased the single-story home where the women lived in the 4200 block of East Cambridge Avenue during 2006. What was once a happy living environment between two best friends quickly turned into a tragic crime scene when Melissa and Nicole were found murdered inside the home on December 3rd, 2010. According to reports, both women were about to begin new chapters in their life shortly before they were killed. Nicole had resigned from her job as a bartender, and she was close to finishing her communications degree from the University of Phoenix. Melissa was still bartending, but she was also pursuing a career as a dental hygienist and had recently graduated from Pima Medical Institute.
As previously noted, Melissa was also eight weeks pregnant at the time of the murders. While she had already told her sister the news, Melissa planned to surprise her mother on Christmas by telling her about the pregnancy. In fact, a Ziplock bag with a positive pregnancy test was found amongst Melissa's belongings. "Merry Xmas!" was scribbled across the bag.
The murders.
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| source: silentwitness.org |
Melissa and Nicole were reportedly last seen alive at their home by Melissa's boyfriend. After Melissa's boyfriend left that evening, both women sent text messages from their respective cell phones. It's unclear, when, exactly, their last messages were sent.
As stated on the card above, investigators believe Melissa and Nicole were murdered sometime after 8:00 PM on December 2nd, 2010. Their bodies were discovered at 12:22 PM on December 3rd, 2010. Melissa and Nicole were found in different parts of the house, but both women had been strangled.
Nothing was stolen from the residence, so a robbery was ruled out as a motive. There were no signs of forced entry. Both women had defensive wounds, which indicates they fought the attacker, but there was otherwise nothing to indicate a major fight or violent struggle in the home.
Who killed Melissa and Nicole?
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| source: 12 News |
By all accounts, Melissa and Nicole were loving and fun young women. It's hard to imagine how anyone could take such vibrant lives so senselessly, and it's even harder to imagine why. However, there are a few aspects in the lives of both women that are worth looking into for potential theories.
Melissa's boyfriend.
Melissa's boyfriend/father of her unborn child was inevitably looked into as a potential suspect in the beginning of the investigation. Aside from the fact that it is standard procedure to question significant others of murder victims, Melissa's boyfriend was also the last person known to have seen Melissa and Nicole alive before their murders.
There was another major reason to suspect the boyfriend as well: Melissa's pregnancy. Since she was only eight weeks along at the time of her death, it's likely that the news of the pregnancy was still fresh to both Melissa and her boyfriend. The couple had also just gone to their first sonogram appointment together, which likely brought the pregnancy further into reality for both of them.
The couple also had not been together for very long prior to Melissa getting pregnant. In fact, Melissa's family members had just recently met him at Thanksgiving, just days before the murder. If Melissa's boyfriend did not want this baby, this could have been a potential motive. However, this does not appear to be the case. According to reports, the boyfriend has cooperated with the investigation, submitted DNA, and passed a polygraph exam.
Melissa's family members also do not believe he is the killer. Melissa's sister told reporters that the boyfriend kept in touch with them in years following the murders and was always very respectful. At this time, the boyfriend is not considered a suspect.
Nicole's charges and her mother's lawsuit.
After the news broke about the murders of Melissa and Nicole, it was also reported that Nicole had recently "pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement in a 2009 drug investigation that involved dozens of defendants." She was sentenced to probation as a result. Nicole's family said that the charges were going to be appealed.
There has been speculation that these charges could be related to the murders, especially since dozens of people were involved. Nicole's mother, Rachel Glass, eventually hired a private investigator who reportedly received a tip that Nicole was a confidential informant for the Phoenix police while she was on probation.
Upon receiving this information, Nicole's mother Rachel began to believe that Nicole might have been targeted for snitching. In 2016, Rachel filed a lawsuit against Phoenix police, claiming that "members of the Phoenix Police Department put her daughter to work as a confidential informant and that arrangement led to her death."
The lawsuit states that "Phoenix police officers recruited Nicole to be a confidential informant, but failed to adequately train, watch, or protect her." The police department denied these allegations and said that Nicole was never an informant. It does not appear that the police have investigated a link between Nicole's 2009 charges and her murder. Still, there is still speculation about this being a potential motive in the case for various reasons. This topic will be revisited in a bit below.
Various visitors at their residence & the broken gate lock.
Melissa and Nicole reportedly had several visitors to their home in the days leading up to their murders. Amongst those visitors was a man named Johnny, who had been employed by Nicole to re-finish the floors in the house. Johnny told police that he had provided Nicole with an estimate in October 2010, and his work in the house began on December 1st, 2010 - just two days before Melissa and Nicole were found murdered.
Johnny said that he and his crew - who also happened to be his siblings - worked at the house on December 1st and 2nd. Throughout his time there, Johnny noted that Melissa was home most of the time, while Nicole came and went often. Nicole also seemed to have several visitors in and out of the house.
One such visitor is a man named Jose, a mutual friend of both Melissa and Nicole. Jose came over to the house on December 2nd, 2010 - a day before they were found murdered. Jose was a frequent visitor to the residence, and he initiated meeting up with police after he heard that Melissa and Nicole had been killed.
Jose told police that when he first came over on December 2nd, both Melissa and Nicole were home. Johnny and his crew were also there, working on the floors. While there, Nicole asked Jose to take out the garbage, but noted that the key to their backyard gate was missing, so he'd have to walk around the block to get to the garbage bins.
Jose playfully replied that he was not going to walk that far to take out the garbage, but he agreed to later remove the lock from the gate altogether so Melissa and Nicole could open gate's door without the key. Jose then continued to hang out with Melissa and Nicole for a bit.
At some point, Melissa and Nicole had to leave for a doctor's appointment. They asked Jose to tag along, but he decided to stay while the workers were in the house. While the two were gone, Jose went about removing the gate lock, as he told them he would. He eventually ended up breaking the lock gate off with a hammer.
Jose said that he waited around for a little longer for the women to return. He called both of their phones, but his calls went unanswered. He eventually left before they returned and went to another friend's residence.
The information that Jose provided about the broken lock gate led police to speculate whether or not the killer entered/exited the home through the backyard by going through said gate. Since Nicole stated that the key was missing, it's possible that someone had stolen it with the intent of using it to enter their house later. However, since the gate was broken at the time of the killings, the killer had access to the backyard either way.
Johnny, the worker who was re-finishing the floors, told police that Melissa and Nicole seemed very trusting. They appeared to be comfortable leaving Johnny and his crew at the home while they weren't there, and it also appeared that they often kept their doors unlocked.
Jose, Johnny, and the crew all cooperated with the investigation, and all provided DNA samples to the detectives. None of them have ever been publicly labeled as suspects in the case.
A call about Melissa's ex.
On December 14th, 2010 - just 11 days after the murders - a woman called Phoenix police and stated that Melissa's ex-boyfriend had a history of stalking and making threatening comments. The caller said she believed that if Melissa's ex-boyfriend had found out that Melissa was pregnant with another man's baby, it may have "set him off."
Investigators wanted to question the ex-boyfriend after receiving this information, but it took a while for them to track him down. Detectives were eventually able to arrange an interview with him in early 2011. The ex-boyfriend told investigators that he and Melissa were once engaged, and he had lived with her and Nicole for a time before they ended their relationship.
The ex-boyfriend also seemingly admitted that their relationship had some bumps in the road. He said that he did not like how many men came and went at Melissa and Nicole's residence. It's possible this caused a rift in their relationship, but he denied having ever threatened Melissa, and he denied involvement in the murders.
Melissa's ex-boyfriend also told police that he was unhappy when he heard about her pregnancy because he thought it was too soon for her to be starting a family with a new boyfriend. However, he claimed that he did not know she was pregnant until after her death.
Questions about an intended target.
The ex-boyfriend agreed to provide a DNA sample to investigators. He also told police that he did not believe Melissa was the intended target; that it had to have been Nicole. It's noted that this notion has been implied by several other people, including Melissa's boyfriend at the time of the murder, Melissa's family members, and Nicole's own mother.
At first, there were seemingly reasons to believe there was more of a motive for Melissa's killing than Nicole's. Not only was Melissa newly pregnant by a new boyfriend, but she also was allegedly struggling with an ex-boyfriend who had threatened her life. However, the boyfriend/father of the child immediately cooperated with the investigation, and the ex-boyfriend eventually cooperated as well.
As noted, both Melissa's new boyfriend and ex-boyfriend stated that they did not believe she was the intended target of the killings. Melissa's sister Samantha also does not seem to believe she was the target. In 2023, Samantha told reporters, " I believe that my sister was collateral damage. Wrong place, wrong time."
This statement from Samantha sort of echoes what was said by both Melissa's boyfriend and ex-boyfriend - that Melissa was not the target in the killings. It appears that those close to the investigation believe that Nicole was the intended target.
As previously noted, Nicole's mother believes that Nicole was an informant for the police at the time of her death, and that she was killed as a result. Phoenix police deny that Nicole was an informant, but it's unlikely that they'd willingly offer up that information if she was actually working with them. This also leads to questions of a police cover-up playing a role in the deaths of Melissa and Nicole.
It's worth noting that this theory has never been confirmed. Detectives have remained quiet about the status of the investigation, and there are conflicting reports about their work on the case. While Melissa's mother seems to have a more positive relationship with the detectives, Nicole's mother's lawsuit implies her relationship with investigators is not so great.
Where the case stands today.
There are several viable theories about who might have killed Melissa and Nicole. At this time, no arrests have been made, nor have any suspects been publicly labeled. Years have passed without answers or justice.
There is a monetary reward of $10,000 for anyone with information that could help solve this case. If you have information that could help the investigation, please contact Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.
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