A Knock On The Door

Detectives Revisit 1982 Murder Mystery

(CBS) 
In Olathe, the unsolved murder had been shelved for almost two decades - but never forgotten.

"They didn't have it on the front burner. But they did not forget about it. The community wouldn't let 'em forget about it," says Hoffman, now a true crime writer.

As Detectives Wall and James began going over the 19-year-old evidence, they found it odd that blood spatter was all across Melinda's pillow case. The detectives pointed out that with her head on the pillow, there should be have been a spot without blood.

With so much blood on the pillow case, the detectives were surprised how little blood was on Melinda and her nightgown. The only blood was at the bottom of the gown.

The detectives also had doubts about Melinda's story of being knocked out by intruders.

"If she truly was knocked unconscious for that period of time, she wouldn't have remembered anything," says Det. James.

Evidence was mounting, but they still didn't have a case. They needed to re-interview the suspects.

In December 2001, Detectives Wall and James showed up at Melinda’s home in Ohio. "This is our shot. We wanted to catch her cold," Det. Wall recalls.

When Melinda left Olathe in 1982, she never looked back. She moved to a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, and started over.

Now known as Melinda Raisch, she's a soccer mom with two kids, married to a successful dentist and active in her community and her church.

When the detectives showed up out of the blue at the Raisch home in 2001, they didn't expect her to talk to them. But when they knocked, she invited them in.

As they sat in her kitchen, Raisch told the detectives about the night David was murdered.

"She says that she was awakened by these horrifying sounds. She sees a shadowy figure. And she runs to the bathroom," says Wall, recalling the conversation.

This wasn't the same story she had told police two decades ago. "What happened to the two black guys that broke in demanding bank keys? What happened to, 'I think you hit him too hard. You may have killed him.' None of that," says Wall.

For 19 years, detectives had waited for this kind of break.

"I accused her. I said, 'I know you killed him. Either you killed him or he did,'" Wall remembers.

Asked how she responded, Wall says, "Well, I assure you it wasn't me."

Melinda didn’t stop there. Instead of ending the conversation or calling her lawyer, she kept talking.

"She wanted to please us. She didn’t want her neighbors to be talked to about this," says Wall. "I don't think she ever shared with anybody about what happened in 1982."

Wall thinks Melinda just wanted the detectives to go away. "She thought she could manipulate us to get us to go away," he says.

But they didn’t go away. In fact, after three hours, Melinda agreed to continue talking at the local sheriff's department. But now the interrogation would be videotaped.

Because he had established a rapport with Melinda, Wall conducted the interview.