Revisiting Melanie Ethier's Case with Rabia Chaudry and Ellyn Marsh

December 16, 2024·31 min·2 clips

David Ridgen is calling a person close to the suspect right after this interview.

David is back in the feed. He brings in an interview from Rabia and Ellen Solve the Case, where he talks through Melanie Ethier's disappearance, what his investigation found, and what might still be possible. The conversation gets serious fast. Rabia and Ellen push on the details around Dennis Leveille, including scratches he said came from Melanie and behavior they struggle to wave away. David answers carefully. Asked whether he remembers play fighting, he says no, then separates a general memory someone may have had from anything he can place in the weeks before Melanie disappeared. That distinction does a lot of work. The interview keeps moving between suspicion, memory, and statements people say came later. A dream enters the conversation. So does the claim that Leveille told someone he killed Melanie, apologized because it went wrong, and warned them not to tell. The hosts sound stunned. David stays close to the case, following each account without smoothing it into a cleaner story than the evidence can support. They ask about other assaults. David says there were charges and prison time, then corrects himself while sorting through whether some assaults happened before, after, or across that period. The exchange never quite settles. The darkest material does not land like a big reveal. It piles up as accounts that leave the room feeling colder. A daughter is mentioned too. Her account that her father hit on and attacked her friends sharpens the picture the episode has been building. The close is warm, but not neat. Rabia says she did not know the case before and that less familiar cases deserve a wider conversation.

As heard by us

A careful revisit that sticks to the facts and leaves the uncertainty intact.

The Next Call revisits Melanie Ethier's disappearance through David's interview for Rabia and Ellen Solve the Case, and it keeps the story grounded in what can actually be shown.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Melanie Ethier's disappearance gets a careful second look through investigation details and conflicting testimony.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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