Finding Melissa Highsmith

Hello my name is Jeff Highsmith I am Melissas brother. I have 4 older sisters but Melissa is the oldest of us 5 . My other 3 sisters and I have never met Melissa. She was kidnapped before we were all born in 1971 . My family have looked for such a long time for Melissa . Within the last 6 years my wife and I started looking and doing whatever we could to get her name out there. We created a social media presence to try to keep her story alive.

We have prayed and fasted. We have believed and we put it in the hands of God.

Well on September 9th the national center for missing exploded children received an anonymous tip that Melissa Highsmith was confirmed alive and living in Charleston South Carolina. I contacted Dean Combs, hes the director of the national center for missing exploded children and serves as the case manager from Melissa. I asked him why would he put a lead on their website that is from an anonymous tip. The lead cannot be verified . Dean Combs is a retired homicide detective. He said in his profession of opinion, he believed that the person that left the anonymous tip was a person of interest that actually knew more than they were letting on. The way they worded it was that they knew circumstances about the case and that they knew that this was Melissa.

They traced the tip back to an IP address to a federal building in Charleston . So the person that left the tip knew enough about the law to know that they're not going to be able to get a warrant for the video to see who the tipster was.

The only recourse our family has is to actually go down to Charleston ourselves and try to look for Melissa because the law can't actually proceed any further .

So that's our plan. My dad my wife and myself are going to Charleston on October 22nd and we're gonna pass out flyers and canvas and knock on doors and try to tell as many people as we can that there's a girl that was kidnapped 51 years ago. We're praying and hoping that she is in Charleston area.

We're asking for help. We need volunteers while we're down there. we're asking for financial help because we can't afford to go. Between the 10000 flyers, airfare and hotel, not including rental car and food. It's going to be quite pricey.

But Thankfully the story went all across the world and was picked up by Inside Edition, Good Morning America, Fox News and hundreds of other stations across America, We have been in talks with good morning in America and also the local channel 5 and 7 news in Charleston. We've also talked to the local newspaper, Post and Courier. As well as the Daniel island newspaper . I've let them know that we are coming down there on October 22nd to look and canvas for Melissa Highsmith. Channel 5 and 7 as well are going to do follow up stories and do b-roll film of us passing out flyers and talking to local residents in the area. Good Morning America said they would also pick up the story on their morning broadcast. So we're praying that Charleston would have enough media exposure that Melissa would see the broadcast. We need plane tickets and we also need money for flyers doorhangers please would you give anything that you can to finally have our family reunited it after so long. And when we finally do find Melissa And we're talking in front of cameras and the whole world wants to hear our story . I will say that this is only possible because of generous donations from wonderful people and because of Jesus Christ and prayer and fasting. That God opened these doors that no man could and to God be the glory