'Someone has to catch this monster’: Father of woman found burned in ditch wants answers

CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. — More than three months after the burned body of a woman was found in a Chester County ditch, her killing is still a mystery.

Melissa Whitis, 31, lived in Somerset, Kentucky, and her family still has no idea why she was in South Carolina last September. It’s not even clear where she was killed.

Her father, Larry Farris, contacted Channel 9 from Lexington, Kentucky. He said he wants answers, just like the rest of her loved ones do.

Farris said he knows he’s annoying people at the Chester County Sheriff’s Office by calling them all the time, however, he won’t quit until someone is locked up for what they did to his daughter.

“This is all that’s been on my mind, on the family’s mind. It’s like we’re just walking around in a daze,” Farris said by phone.

A small wreath now marks the place where Whitis’ body was found on Lizzie Melton Road near Old Richburg Road.

The grass is burned, where someone set her body on fire in the ditch.

Whitis was a wife and a mother of four.

Farris said he last heard from her on September 14, when she was near the Virginia/North Carolina border and left him a message asking for money.

He said he tried to call back, but couldn’t reach her.

She was last seen on the 17th, at a Walmart near Winston-Salem, close to Interstate 40.

Her body was found three days later, 130 miles away in Chester County. How she got there and who she was with are still mysteries.

Deputies investigate after burned body found in ditch in Chester County Deputies investigate after burned body found in ditch in Chester County

That morning, a passerby on Lizzie Melton Road called 911, and deputies blocked the road, hoping someone knew who the woman was, but no one did.

Weeks went by before Whitis was identified. There was no missing person report, and she had no ties to the area. Instead, it was a medical device that provided the needed break.

The autopsy found a shunt in her head, which her father said was put in years ago, to drain fluid from her brain. Detectives were able to trace the medical device from its manufacturer to finally identify her.

Not wanting to hurt their investigation, deputies have still not said how she was killed, but they don’t think it happened where she was found.

“They need to catch this monster that’s responsible for this, and make him pay for it,” Farris said.

He hopes that someone saw her sometime between the 17th and the 20th of September and will step forward and make a difference.

Chester County Sheriff Max Dorsey was out of town Friday but was reached by phone. He said this is not a cold case. He called it a very active investigation in both South and North Carolina.​

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