THE man suspected of killing a teenage girl would "switch" in a heartbeat, had twisted fetishes, and was violent toward women, his former roommate has claimed.
Melissa Witt vanished from her hometown of Fort Smith, Arkansas, on December 1, 1994, and her suspected killer claimed to his roommate that he was meant to see her on the day she disappeared.
The student's body was found six weeks later in the Ozarks, an hour's drive north of her home.
No one has ever been charged with the crime, although convicted killer Larry Swearingen was suspected of being behind the murder - due to eerie similarities between Melissa Witt's case and that of Melissa Trotter, another 19-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in neighboring Texas in December 1998.
But author LaDonna Humphrey - who has written three books about the case - claims it couldn't have been Swearingen, and says Melissa's real killer will be charged imminently.
Now the former roommate of Melissa's suspected killer has spoken to The U.S. Sun about the warning signs he experienced living with the man he is convinced is the murderer.
Going under the pseudonym Nixon O'Neil to protect his identity, he explained how he first met the purported killer back in 2001.
A self-described "small-town guy" from Arkansas, Nixon, now 46, met the killer through a friend before moving into a place together bought by their parents.
At first, the pair got on well and would drink and party together, but Nixon says he started to see a different side when his roommate would "open up."
"He had a switch that would flip, and he became this very different personality," Nixon said. "He had some weird sexual fetishes and he was very, very misogynistic."
Nixon added that he tried not to act surprised when his roommate revealed his "choking fetish" and other "weird stuff," but said he became particularly concerned one night in 2004 when he first brought up Melissa Witt.
The pair were at home playing Xbox when Nixon spotted a woman's Mickey Mouse watch hanging up on the wall.
Nixon asked his roommate why it was there, to which he responded by asking if he had ever heard of Melissa Witt.
Being in high school in Arkansas at the time, Nixon was well aware of the case but still didn't know what the connection was to the watch.
Nixon explained how his roommate told him he had known Melissa at the time and had bought her and him Mickey Mouse watches.
"For some reason, I had this unsettling, eerie feeling, something just didn't sit right," he said.
The roommate added that he had been introduced to Melissa through a mutual friend and went out with her.
"He said she was a really good girl, sweet, nice," Nixon added. He said that she hadn't wanted to have sex with him and that he had even considered marrying her.
When he's on drugs or he's deep into the bottle, he's a whole different person.
Nixon O'Neil
Nixon said that his roommate told him he was supposed to meet Melissa for a date on the night she disappeared, but he got held up at a fraternity party he was making deliveries for.
Melissa went missing after going to a bowling alley to meet her mother, with police finding signs of a bloody struggle in the parking lot.
Further signs of his roommate's dark side came to the forefront later, which led Nixon to believe fervently that he had killed Melissa.
One day, after losing his job, the roommate went back to the apartment and - in Nixon's words - "basically destroyed the place, punched holes in the walls, busted out the windshield on his vehicle. He went ballistic."
He added, "He choked the girl he was seeing at the time, they got in a fight and he pushed her down the stairs.
"After that, I knew a couple other girls he dated after that, and started asking around, and I started hearing more and more stories."
Nixon said his friends and family who met his roommate thought he could be "charming" when sober, but "kind of crazy," when he was drunk or high.
"When he's on drugs or he's deep into the bottle, he's a whole different person," he added.
The pair lived together for a year and a half, and the roommate eventually got in trouble with the law for drug-related charges.
Nixon first went to the cops in about 2007 or 2008, he says, after his wife at the time convinced him to go.
"She had gotten to know him real well, and seen some of the craziness," he said.
THE final movements of murdered Arkansas teenager Melissa Witt.
Dec 1, 1994: Melissa and her mother Mary Ann Witt have a falling out over money. Feeling bad, she wrote a note asking Melissa to join her for a burger at Bowling World.
Morning, Dec 1: Melissa went to class at Westark Community College, now the University of Arkansas, in Fort Smith.
Afternoon, Dec 1: Melissa meets a friend for lunch at Chick-fil-A down the road from college. She then goes to her part-time job as a dental assistant.
5 pm, Dec 1: Leaving work, her car wouldn't start due to a dead battery. A stranger came along and gave her a jump start.
5.45 pm, Dec 1: Melissa arrives home and charges. A neighbor sees her leaving the house wearing a white V-neck sweater and blue jeans.
Evening, Dec 1: She arrives at Bowling World to meet her mother but never makes it inside.
Approx 6.30 pm, Dec 1: Signs of struggle heard in the parking lot. A young boy hears a woman scream "Help me," but there are no security cameras outside the Bowling Alley.
7.45 pm, Dec 1: Someone hands in Melissa's car keys. No one spots the blood spatters.
2.00 am, Dec 2: Mary Ann calls her daughter's best friend, Tara Limbird, assuming she had gone to see her.
9.00 am, Dec 2: Mary Ann reports her daughter missing. Cops tell her since Melissa is over 18, she can leave on her own.
Dec 3: Melissa' car, a white 1995 Mitsubishi Mirage, is found at Bowling World.
Jan 11, 1995: Cops receive a "strange" phone call they believe is tied to Melissa's disappearance from a woman with a heavy Southern accent. She is heard saying, "Go ahead and tell them what you found," before a younger male voice says, "I can't," and hangs up.
Jan 13: Two days after the phone call, Melissa's body is found by a trapper in the Ozark National Forest, some 50 miles north of Fort Smith. She had been strangled to death and sexually assaulted and was found naked, lying face down some 30 yards from the road. A Mickey Mouse watch, her purse, and a gold earring were all missing.
For her new book Connected By Fate, LaDonna does a deep dive into Melissa's diary which she believes could hold the key to unmasking the killer.
The case remains unsolved almost three decades on, in part due to what LaDonna believes were mistakes by the original investigating officers.
But with the 30th anniversary approaching, LaDonna is convinced that the true killer will be named.
She previously told The U.S. Sun how the "same name kept coming up" in Melissa's diary - the name of Nixon's former roommate.
Nixon last saw the suspected killer a year ago after speaking to author LaDonna Humphrey for her latest book and says he would tell him to go to the cops if he saw him again.
"I've told him numerous times just to talk to the cops," he said.
He added that there has been "more than one person die" in this person's life.
For him, Melissa's case has stayed with him because it's "the story of the haves and the have-nots."
Where his former roommate had local power and connections, Melissa had none of that.
He went on, "Melissa didn't have anything, she had good people around her, a working mom, she was trying to do everything she could, she was doing the right thing going to school and working.
"It's just so damn sad," he said.
