Fort Lauderdale Police are urging the public to “be vigilant” as they continue to search for the red car taken from the home of an elderly couple found shot to death on Friday.
In newly released but heavily redacted 911 calls, a family member told police that her brother had called her. He had discovered the bodies of the victims: Claudette Melvin, 87, and her husband, Major Melvin, 89.
“I need y’all to get to Fort Lauderdale,” the woman told the operator on Friday. “My brother just called me. I don’t have my car, I can’t get over there.”
Then she added, “My brother is like, he has enough sense where he knows to call people.”
The couple lived with their son, who has special needs, according to family.
Police have released few details about the shooting and are waiting to locate their 2014 Ford Fusion before determining what happened, and if the person who took their car is the same person who killed them. But their daughter, Tonya Mitchell, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday that she thinks they were murdered by an intruder who knew their front door would be unlocked.
#FLPD Have you seen this vehicle? This specific red Ford Fusion is involved in a death investigation and our detectives need your help locating it. If you've seen it, please call Detective Sergeant Geiger at 954-828-6958 or @crimestoppers2. pic.twitter.com/M8kDO9VZzi
— Fort Lauderdale Police (@ftlauderdalepd) March 26, 2024
“The investigation is ongoing and detectives have still not located the victims’ vehicle,” spokesperson Casey Liening said in an update Thursday. “We again encourage our community to be vigilant when driving around to assist us in locating this vehicle.”
The 911 caller described the home as a corner house situated in the Melrose Park neighborhood.
Police have responded to the house once before in the last three years, records show. In April 2022, they responded to a custody dispute at the home. A man was upset that he could not take his child home with him from the child’s mother, who lived at the home.
The altercation was “merely verbal,” a police officer wrote in the incident report, and the man left the scene “without issue.”
“I’m asking for help i’m asking the public to help me in this time of grievance,” the granddaughter of the couple said in a GoFundMe page. “It’s been very hard my grandparents has been with me all my life and then we were separated behind someone that came in here and did a selfish act.”
Anyone with information should contact Detective Almanzar 954-828-5546 or Detective Swisher 954-828-4007.
