Caleb Hughes

Caleb Hughes Full Name: Caleb Daniel Hughes Origin: Virginia, U.S. Occupation: Handyman Goals: Abduct Melissa Brannen (succeeded) Crimes: Kidnapping Murder (possibly) Auto theft Type of Villain: Kidnapper

Caleb Daniel Hughes (born January 1966) is an American man responsible for the 1989 kidnapping of 5-year-old Melissa Brannen. No trace of Melissa has ever been found and she is believed to be dead, although Hughes was only ever convicted of kidnapping.

Biography

Hughes was born in Virginia in 1966. At the time of Melissa's disappearence he was working as a groundskeeper at the Woodside Apartments complex in Lorton, Virginia, and had criminal convictions for speeding, drunk driving and auto theft.

On December 3, 1989, Hughes attended a Christmas party at the apartment of Tammy Brannen. During the party, Tammy's five-year-old daughter Melissa left the apartment to get some potato chips and never returned. A search began almost immediately but no trace of her was found and an abduction was suspected. Hughes was immediately made a suspect because other guests at the party reported that he had been acting suspiciously. He had flirted crudely with female guests and had been paying an unusual amount of attention to Melissa.

Police visited Hughes's apartment during the night, finding the clothes he had been wearing in the washing machine. Hughes's wife told police that Hughes had put his clothes in the wash almost as soon as he got home. Part of the soles of his shoes had been cut off, presumably to remove bloodstains, and the sheath for a large knife was found alongside the clothes. Hughes's wife also told police that Hughes had returned from work later than usual and the odometer on his car was unusually high. Hughes explained the discrepancies as a result of him having taken a longer route home so he could buy beer at the liquor store, but liquor stores in Virginia close before Hughes claimed to have stopped at the store. Hughes agreed to take a lie detector test, which he failed.

Hughes's car was seized and searched for fibres, finding yellow fibres on the seat. At the time of her disappearence Melissa was wearing a yellow Big Bird dress from JCPenney's. Investigators bought an identical dress from the same restaurant and determined that the fibres were identical to those from the dress, proving that they came from Melissa's clothes. Prosecutors wanted to charge Hughes with murder, but could only charge him with kidnapping because Virginia law requires the location of the murder to be known to bring a murder charge. Hughes was charged with "abduction with intent to defile" (kidnapping to commit sexual assault) on the basis that there would be no reason for him to remove Melissa's clothes other than sex. Hughes was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison. He served 29 years before being paroled in August 2019.