Ceremony to mark 20th anniversary of Bolingbrook teen's disappearance

BOLINGBROOK – Sunday will mark the 20th anniversary of a teenager's disappearance from her Bolingbrook home.

On Jan. 31, 1996, 13-year-old Rachel Mellon stayed home from school with a sore throat. Her stepfather, Vince Mellon, was also home. Vince Mellon said he left the house about 2:30 p.m. and assumed Rachel was still in her room when he returned, but when Rachel's mother, Amy Mellon, came home that evening, the girl was missing.

If she left her house voluntarily, she did so dressed in only pajamas and slippers on a freezing cold day, according to The Herald-News files.

"Someone knows something," Rachel's father, Jeff Skemp, wrote on www.rachelfind.com, a website created to gather information about his daughter's disappearance.

A memorial service will be held in honor of Rachel and 200 other missing persons statewide – 10 for each year Skemp's daughter has been missing – at 2 p.m Sunday at Bernard J. Ward Elementary School, 200 Recreation Drive. Balloons will be released in the parking lot after the service.

"Twenty years later, not knowing what happened to Rachel is still the hardest part," Skemp wrote. "I just want to bring her home and give her the dignity of a Christian burial."

Vince Mellon was held by police in January 2000 to submit DNA samples and he and his wife were called to testify before a grand jury four days later. No one has ever been charged in Rachel's disappearance.

Rachel Mellon would now be 33 years old. Images created to show how she would look have been produced by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Anyone with information is asked to call the center at 800-843-5678 or Bolingbrook police at 630-226-0600.