Melanie Marie James

• Missing Since 04/20/2014
• Missing From Farmington, New Mexico
• Classification Missing
• Sex Female
• Race Native American
• Date of Birth 07/05/1992 (32)
• Age 21 years old
• Height and Weight 5'0, 116 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue bandana shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers.
• Medical Conditions James has a history of alcohol abuse.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Native American female. Brown hair, brown eyes. James has a tattoo of a spade on her right index finger. Her ears are pierced and one of her upper front teeth is chipped.

Details of Disappearance

James was last seen by her family Farmington, New Mexico on April 20, 2014. Her sister saw her walking with a man near McKinley Elementary School in the vicinity of 20th Street and Butler Avenue in Farmington, New Mexico on April 20, 2014. James said she planned to enroll in classes at San Juan College and fill out job applications, then return home by 5:00 p.m.

She never came home, however. When her sister came back to the area to look for her, she couldn't find her. She had sometimes dropped out of sight for days at a time, but she's never been gone for this long.

On April 24, James's duffel bag and purse were found hidden in an alleyway behind some businesses on 20th Street in Farmington. The police officer who found the bags found two cellular phones in them, and dialed the last number the phones had called. That number belonged to a male friend of James's.

He told police that James had left his home the night before. He said she was drunk and kept knocking on neighbors' doors and someone called the police, and he told her to get out of the house because she could not keep disturbing the neighbors, so she took her bags and left before the police arrived in response to the call. James was not listed as a missing person at the time and the bag and purse were logged as "found property".

At the time of her disappearance, James was living a transient life, staying with various friends. Because of this she would sometimes hide her belongings in a safe place in town and then return to get them later. It's possible she put the bag and purse in the alley herself; the alley was only a few blocks from her friend's house.

James's mother stated when she tried to file a missing persons report for her, the police told her they would not accept a report for at least 48 hours. When she told them James had already been missing for longer than that, they told her they meant 48 hours after the reportee initially contacted law enforcement. The report was not officially filed until June, two months after Melanie went missing.

There was a sighting of James at a Family Dollar store in Farmington September 2015. A person who knew James's family saw her and called James's mother, who sent one of her sons to the store, but by the time he arrived James was gone. Her mother subsequently identified her from the store's video surveillance footage.

She appeared to be in good health in the video, but also appeared "nervous" and kept looking around as if she thought someone was watching her or following her. The video footage was erased before the police had an opportunity to look at it. Since the 2015 sighting there has been no sign of James.

James had been in an abusive relationship with her former boyfriend. In March 2014, just a month before he disappeared, she filed charges against him for false imprisonment and aggravated assault against a household member, and he was jailed, but he continued to communicate with her from jail through letters.

At the time of her disappearance, James is known to have been trying to get to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had heard that her ex-boyfriend was out of jail and was afraid he would find her, so she wanted to leave Farmington. The ex-boyfriend has not been publicly identified and it's not clear if he is a suspect in the case. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in September 2014; the false imprisonment charge was dropped.

Authorities are interested in speaking to the man who was with James the day her sister saw her. James called him her friend, but her sister knew most of her friends and didn't recognize this man. He's described as black, about six feet tall with a slender build, short hair and a beard. They are not calling him a suspect but a witness in the case.

James's disappearance remains unsolved.