GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. — The Green Cove Springs Police Department is looking into a missing persons case from 1989, as now 35 years later, investigators are calling it a "suspicious death."
36-year-old Melinda Holder disappeared in June 1989. Her now adult children hope someone will come forward with information after all these years. For three decades, Nakia Holder and her older sisters did not know what happened to their mother, but remain hopeful because the detective on the case says they now have "persons of interest."
Six months after Holder's disappearance, on Dec. 10, 1989, police were called to an abandoned house fire on Harrison Street in Green Cove Springs. The next day, firefighters found human remains inside the house.
Then, one year later in 1990, the house fire was deemed an arson. Investigators determined an accelerant was used. Fast forward to 2019, investigators confirmed the remains were Melinda's. The police department said DNA was taken from her children and sent to the University of North Texas for analysis; there, it was determined that the remains were Holder's through mitochondrial DNA testing.
Nakia Holder, Melinda's youngest daughter, was only 11 years old when her mother disappeared. Nakia remembers how her family dynamic changed growing up without her mother.
"Our lives have never been normal ever since then," Nakia told First Coast News. "The basic stuff in life we went without... our kids [Melinda's grandchildren] are going without. They never knew their grandmother. They're suffering, too."
Detective Milliken, who is on the case, said she cannot say much about the investigation, but said it was determined that a number of people who were not in the original case file are suspected to have been involved. Milliken explained that some of the individuals were found and interviewed. Still, she urges people with information about the case to come forward; she believes somebody knows what happened to Melinda.
"At this point of the investigation, we want to know why and I think that is an answer that her family would like as well," Milliken said. "Why? I mean, we know that the fire was set on purpose."
First Coast Crime Stoppers is offering a $3,000 reward for information that can lead to an arrest.