Body Found in Remote Area Identified as 18-Year-Old Simi Woman

Those who knew Melinda Brown think that it was her trusting nature that got her killed.

“She was just a sweet, trusting person,” said longtime friend John Luden, who was visiting with Brown’s family Monday--the day authorities revealed that a corpse found in a remote section of Ventura County was the 18-year-old Simi Valley resident.

Luden said he had known the 5-foot-6, sandy-haired teenager most of her life.

Brown, missing since Nov. 13, was found dead Friday by a group of hunters in the Hungry Valley area of Los Padres National Forest. Ventura County sheriff’s deputies are investigating her death as a homicide.

The last time Brown’s family heard from her was a phone call she made to her father to let him know that she would be home from Brunswick Valley Bowl 30 minutes past her 10 p.m. curfew.

“She told [her father], ‘I’ll be right home,’ ” Luden said.

The Brown home is just three blocks from the bowling alley. She never arrived.

“We knew that the way she was, this was nothing like what she would do,” Luden said. “This was not normal for Melinda.”

Her family suspects that she may have accepted a ride home from someone she did not know.

The Browns reported their daughter missing to Simi Valley police Nov. 17 and put up fliers around town with her picture.

Police checked into her disappearance by interviewing friends and acquaintances, and investigating the bowling alley, Sgt. Andy McCluskey said.

The family’s belief that she may have accepted a ride is among the “million possibilities” that police have considered and will continue to pursue, he said.

“That’s certainly a possible scenario, but we just don’t know,” he said, adding that there had been no indication before Friday that she might be the victim of a homicide.

With the discovery of Brown’s body, the investigation was turned over to the Sheriff’s Department. “We’ll be lending whatever assistance to the sheriff,” McCluskey added.

Brown’s body was found near Interstate 5 just inside the Ventura County line on national forest land, Sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said. Detectives spent Monday investigating the crime scene and interviewing family and friends.

Sheriff’s deputies have not said how long Brown had been dead. An autopsy was performed Saturday, but details have not been released.

Brown last attended Simi Valley’s adult education school, according to school officials.

She worked at the In-N-Out Burger on Stearns Street, Luden added.