Shocking Secret in Autopsy Unravels a Twisted Love Story: The Murder of Melody Hoffman [True Crime]

in February 2024 Melody Hoffman was a cheerful and trusting 20-year-old she was close with family particularly her mother but there were some things that Melody kept even from her at about 11:30 p. m. on a Saturday night without saying a word she slipped out the front door of her family home and caught a ride in a blue Honda Accord that night the conflict brewing in Melody's personal life was coming to a boil unfortunately for her she was completely oblivious to the danger that she was walking [Music] into hi there I'm Kevin and welcome to just thought Lounge today's case is about a brutal murder that prosecutors would later say defies reason it's the story of a sad and twisted love triangle and even more Disturbed accomplices who were willing to do the thinkable let's take a [Music] look Melody Hoffman and her mother Megan had no particular plans on Saturday February 17th 2024 the two had a late start to their day leaving their home in Maran Iowa in the afternoon afternoon to do some grocery shopping they grabbed tacos for lunch then had dinner in later they crawled into Megan's bed to watch a movie when the film ended at just after 11:00 p.

m. Megan assumed that was it for the night however her daughter had other ideas at 11:27 Megan received a notification from the live 360 location tracking application the app was connected to her daughter's phone and Melody had just left the house a camera in their living room captured the 20-year-old leaving only a few minutes earlier on the video the screen of Melody's cell phone was captured flashing as though she was receiving a message or call the sender unknown her mother was not impressed she texted immediately are you kidding me right now I'll be back Melody wrote unfortunately that would not be the case Megan continued to message her daughter she was telling her to come home while also monitoring Melody's movements via the live 360 app it showed her heading Northwest towards Morgan Creek Park then back towards Maran around 1:00 a. m.

she appeared to be at an apartment complex only a few blocks away from home then her location permissions were disabled exchanging messages over Snapchat Megan repeatedly told her daughter to reenable the the location tracking on my way and almost there the messages read leave the door open for me but her replies were delayed and the language she used was odd it was Fuller and more fleshed out than Melody would usually bother to text this was a subtle difference that escaped her mother in that moment her requests to call and speak directly were ignored her calls went unanswered Melody never re-enabled her location tracking indeed much later Megan would come to the conclusion that this final conversation had not taken place with her daughter but rather with her daughter's killer the final text message from her phone came not from Melody but from Apple iPhone's automatic emergency impact service the notification stated that Melody's device had detected a crash it came in at 3:13 a. m. and marked the location driving out to the area in the middle of the night Megan found the iPhone face down broken and without its regular case it was on the entry ramp to Highway 100 all recent activity had been deleted the following morning Amy robas was parked by the water at Lily Lake in a Mana about a half an hour's Drve south of Maran she was watching the bird when a distraught couple approached her asking for help they had come across a body in the grass but were uncertain if what they were seeing was actually real Amy got out to take a look then she dialed 911 the address of your emergency um I'm actually at Lily Lake in am mana and there's a it looks like a dead body here okay you're at the Lily Pond yeah right by the uh where the picnic area The Pavilion is the woman and she's just wearing underwear is she breathing it does not look like it okay so you said that she on her stomach she is on her stomach yes is does it look like she was in the water uh no okay and is there anything else around her no but there there are all kinds of marks on her back like flashes the body Amy had discovered was that of Melody Hoffman deputies from the Iowa County Sheriff's Office found her face down arms at her sides and lacerations covering her back the medical examiner concluded that Melody had died of strangulation she also had numerous stab and slash wounds to her body marks on her hands and wrists suggested she had been bound though she was found without her her clothing and her undergarments sitting out of place there was no indication of a sexual assault it was also determined that many if not all of her other wounds were delivered postmortem the murder appeared to have been staged to look like a sexually motivated attack upon closer inspection the scene indicated a planned and curated crime the area surrounding melody was largely undisturbed it did not show evidence of the attack or the extent of the injuries that Melody had sustained investigators concluded that Lily Lake was not the location where the murder had taken place she must have been killed elsewhere and later brought there Melody Hoffman was born in Cedar Rapids in December 2003 to parents Megan and TJ she had attended Liberty High School and then briefly continued on to Kirkwood Community College Melody dreamed of pursuing a career care related to Medicine perhaps as a carer in a nursing home after a year of study however her grades were suffering and she was unable to continue diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability Melody's mental capacity was years behind her physical age while in the body of a 20-year-old woman Melody's mind was said to process the world as a 12 to 14-year-old her decision-making skills therefore were also impacted by her disability her trusting nature made her even more susceptible to manipulation while her peers had moved on to further work and study Melody instead embraced her deep Love of Animals by taking on a volunteer role at the Lin County Animal Shelter an extremely loving and caring person she was also an extrovert family said she knew no strangers had no fear and loved everyone unconditionally on the night of February 17th after abruptly leaving her house Melody told her worried mother that she was with friends a few minutes later she posted a video to her Snapchat story she was in the back of a car joyfully singing along to a song though it seems she didn't know the lyrics heartache and grief over the news of Melody's murder was felt by the community of Maran a vigil was held in the days following her death to remember Melody's joyful and carefree personality while her mother grieved she also provided investigators with her daughter's phone and shared her location data investigators determined that melody was at Morgan Creek Park when her Apple watch recorded her heartbeat intensify before it either stopped or the device deactivated they believed the murder had taken place there before her phone traveled back towards Maran at at 1:00 a.

m. later traveling to her final destination it did not take long for detectives to identify the first person of interest in the investigation and that was Melody's ex-boyfriend a 20-year-old named McKinley lisma McKinley was known as just Ken to his friends the two had met through an app and dated for about 2 months leading to the end of December of the previous year McKinley had been Melody's first boyfriend and she was heartbroken when he broke things off with her the split then turned ugly when Melody discovered that McKinley was getting back together with his ex-girlfriend a woman named Nikia because she was pregnant the two exchanged heated messages over Facebook arguing over the breakup in one conversation Melody even threatened to call the police as it turns out Nikia was not the only one expecting Melody's autopsy had uncovered the presence of a pregnancy hormone which indicated that she too was either newly pregnant or had been very recently it was a secret that she may have kept or perhaps she had shared this news with McKinley before her death no one else in her life had been aware on the same day that McKinley made arrangements to collect his things from Melody's home after their breakup she received a threatening text message from an unknown number it read [ __ ] I hate you and your family ain't safe the message was reported to Maran PD but the sender was never identified Megan Hoffman however believed she knew who had sent it McKinley lisma he was the only source of conflict in Melody's life following the emergency notification in the early morning hours of February 18th McKinley was the first person she reached out to McKinley claimed not to have seen or heard from Melody he told Megan that he followed her rules and did not spend time with her daughter without her knowledge or presence this claim was not truthful when McKinley sat down with detectives he nonetheless told them the same thing that the two were no longer involved he had not seen her this claim was another provable lie traffic cameras had captured McKinley's blue Honda Accord driving to Marian to pick up Melody after 11:20 p. m.

on February 17th several different traffic cameras then tracked the car to Morgan Creek before the car was then seen traveling north on Edgewood Road and toward Maran near to Melody's home and the apartment complex shown on her location tracking McKinley then drove toward Lily Lake in a Mana his cell phone data mapped the same movements the last stop before he returned home was a Quickstar in Cedar Rapids there McKinley and a companion were captured exiting the Honda and purchasing cigars a search warrant for the Honda had already been obtained when McKinley waved his rights to an attorney and sat down with detectives while the interview took place officers were conducting a thorough search of his vehicle sometime yesterday we were brought into work Cas and for close to an hour McKinley insisted that he had not seen Melody that weekend and that he had nothing to do with her brutal murder but we broke up in December like December 30th okay how was the breakup good not good it was good for me but she didn't take it very well you know why why did you guys decide to break up because I had my ex-girlfriend's pregnant and I'm pretty much had more intention on focusing on the child and being the father and she didn't like that so sure so I broke up over the phone cuz her mom would say whenever we get into an argument do it over the phone instead of being together y so I pretty much was like hey I'm coming back I'm going to get you something and then I just left and I just called and said hey I don't want to be with you yeah did you you talked to her but did you not see her on Friday and Saturday okay when do you think was the last time you saw her the last time I seen her the last time I seen it was that one day I went to her house and we hung up for a bit and I left the tone of the interview began to shift as investigators inquired into McKinley's movements that weekend namely a shopping trip he had made to Walmart where he eventually admitted to purchasing a machete it was for a camping trip he said and I'm not too familiar with um with camping or mudding but um forgive me what would be the purpose of getting a machete for going camping I prob say uh protection like hey if I'm going camp in the middle of nowhere and I can't see nothing I'm get grabing a machete oh okay okay but you never wound up going camping no okay and you said the reason you didn't go camping was because they they changed their mind last minute okay who's who's name the driver okay and you don't know who the driver was I know who the driver was okay I wasn't involved in anything I was actually where I said I was I literally was down the street from where I was at okay from patties uh house exactly right yeah and unfortunately the case facts don't indicate that at all and I get that this can be difficult to talk about but again one it's not so much a matter of of of if this is the way it happened we know how it happened we know exactly how it happened but what we don't know McKinley is why okay while searching McKinley's vehicle law enforcement recovered a machete its handle sticking out from beside the driver's seat and the center console they also discovered packaging for two other machetes of a similar size a pocket knife with a serrated edge alongside a roll of partially used duct tape sat in the front compartment of the vehicle but it was in the trunk where the story of Melody Hoffman's last horrifying moments were told a large plastic bag was removed and its contents examined inside a pink shirt stained with blood a pair of black leggings which melody was known to often wear a similarly stained band for an Apple Watch multiple gloves which were found to be an earlier Walmart purchase the receipt for these was also located it listed the purchase of two additional machetes duct tape was recovered with Melody's hair attached the cover to her cell phone was in the car and finally a piece of paracord this piece of climbing rope was thought to be the murder weapon okay I when I sat here and I listened to what you said I wanted so much for you to give me something that aligned with all of our other case facts but it didn't and so that's why I was asking those hard difficult questions because it's like all right maybe maybe McKinley came in here and he's just a little bit upset and and regretful about what he did but I want to give you the opportunity to tell us what the real truth of this this matter was okay because right now we can both agree that we have not talked about this yet okay you guys said if I want to be done with this I can be done with this and I leave because this is so this is just too much for me right now man okay okay and that's completely up to you if at some come back you guys I can but this is just really too much for me right now okay so what are you saying I just want to be D this leave I said okay all right well listen if at some point whether it's tonight tomorrow morning tomorrow afternoon you're in a position where you've had a chance to think about a few things and you think you know what um upon thinking of a few things there's a few things that maybe I didn't get on the table that I would like to get out the table we're always going to we're always going to leave that door open for you okay we're always going to be fair with you when McKinley was ready to talk he offered a new version of events one that placed the blame squarely on the other individual that was with him that Saturday night a new friend of his Dakota Ben Patton Dakota and Melody had never met McKinley said that they started with casual plans to spend time together that night and Dakota was simply tagging along but things took a dangerous turn when Dakota began to suspect that Melody had a bit of money he may have gotten this impression McKinley claimed after she spoke about wanting to buy him some gifts including a new PlayStation cuz then I was I was like talking to I was like hey so what are you getting me from Amazon and she was telling me that she's getting some clothes and if I want she can order me a new PlayStation 5 and then he was like damn you you must have a lot of money to be spending on him like that and then she was like yes because she L me so then he was like well can we just ride around for a bit he just was whispering something to me and I was like what are you whispering and he pretty much was just Whispering something me and I was like I don't know and I'm like so what are we doing so then heet just like can I talk to you for a bit I'm like okay talk he was like no by yourself to McKinley's surprise Dakota then pulled out a gun he proceeded to make demands he forced McKinley to tie up Melody with the duct tape he said perhaps they could Ransom her he told me to get the duct tape and duct tape her hand so at at that point I thought it was all a joke you know I thought it was literally all a joke and he was like just duct tape her hand trust me and then I was like no I'm not duct tape in hand and then he took the gun and then he put it to my to the side of my head and he was like just do it and then I just duct tap her hand and then she was asking me what's going on and I was like I don't know Dakota climbed into the back seat of the Honda and struck Melody he also took her phone from her because as he's hitting her he stopped he was she said you know my mom can see my location and then when she said that I remember her she does have her location on so when he told me to turn it off I turned one location off but I left the other one running and he didn't know I pretty much R back to Maran and from where from Mar tree Park from I went back to Maran and I went closer to her house so that way I can give her mom a clue like her daughter is nearby cuz I turned the location on right back after M so then when her mom was texting he looked he was like who's that texting and it says big fat llama drama and he was like who is that and she said that's my mom and then he took the phone and and he started texting the mom saying she's uh on her way to open the door right so tell him like yo just stop bro just let her go just let her go she in the back seat crying and calling my name I can't do nothing cuz he sitting in the front seat with a gun A gun and he has the phone according to McKinley's version of events once they drove to Lily Lake and parked by the pond he turned off the car and waited while Dakota took Melody some distance away he claimed there was nothing that he could have done to stop what happened next and then from where I was standing I can't hear like what was happening but I couldn't see what was happening I couldn't do nothing because I couldn't get out of there so I just pretty much just standing by the car just like wishing like it would all stop detectives were not buying the story if McKinley had been forced into taking part in a murder at gunpoint why not report it I really tried to say something I couldn't so then I I fell asleep for a bit and I started having nightmares when the weapons found in the Honda Accord were tested for DNA and fingerprints they returned hits on Dakota Van Patton not for McKinley lisma the house where Dakota was staying was searched in the basement where he slept detectives found more of the climbing rope that they had discovered in McKinley's trunk at the end of Dakota's bed were a pair of eyeglasses these were confirmed to be Melodies Dakota's brother also lived in the house and investigators found a machete under his bed a locked container with a pistol holster and ammunition in his bedroom and a Foot Locker with knives the 18-year-old was arrested and arraigned for the murder alongside McKinley lisma the lack of DNA on the items in the the trunk may have cast doubt upon the extent of the ex-boyfriend's involvement if it were not for the other circumstantial evidence linking him to the murder surveillance from the Southwest Cedar Rapids Walmart where the machetes and gloves were purchased revealed three men purchasing supplies with McKinley and Dakota Van Patton was 18-year-old Logan kimton three machetes were purchased as well as multiple pairs of gloves when questioned about what he knew Logan told investigators that all three of them had planned to commit the murder but when the time came he chickened out he said his cell phone data placed him in the area of his girlfriend's apartment when the murder took place Logan was charged with willful injury and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony both McKinley and Dakota pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and were held in County Jail McKinley however enforced fored his right to a speedy trial which commenced in November 2024 the evidence will show that the carefreeness and levity of the night turned into depravity the evidence will show that it was at Morgan Creek Park where whatever depraved plan the defendants had came into action the evidence will show they did not treat her as any human being would ever deserve to be treated and that she endured unspeakable trauma and you might want to understand why it happened but the evidence shows you whatever reason it happened defies reason the evidence will show it was likely done to Stage what her body wouldn't look like after being attacked and if that wasn't the reason the evidence will only be explainable by some other depraved and senseless reason the likes of which reasonable Minds could hardly construe McKinley's defense argued that he was present when the murder took place but that he took no part in it on February 18th of this year mle was he was there when he was there when however this case is not nearly a straightforward with the Revelation that melody was either newly pregnant or had just been prosecutors speculated that she had known this fact and shared it with m the unemployed 20-year-old however had just moved in with his long-term girlfriend Nikia at her grandmother Patty's house Nikia was also pregnant the state theorized that he solicited the help of Dakota and Logan to kill Melody believing that he was responsible for both pregnancies and that he only wanted one of them there was no clear indication that McKinley knew Melody's secret indeed she had not even shared this news with her mother it was possible argued the defense that melody was unaware that she was pregnant Nikia took the stand and spoke to McKinley's other potential motive she and Melody had found out about each other leading to her issuing an ultimatum we got back together when we got back together at my apartment she called his phone and basically she said that you wanted I answered it and she said she wanted to talk to her man and I was like who's your man she she said McKinley any point in time tell the defendant that he couldn't talk to her I don't I basically told him he had to choose between me or her and when you told him that he had to make that choice what was his response he said he picked me defense attorney Jill imerman questioned this proposed motive by suggesting that McKinley was not the father of Nika's daughter and may have known that at the time of Melody's death if true this would suggest that Melody and her pregnancy was not in the way of the family and future happiness McKinley had wanted with Nikia so on February 17th 2024 when you're living on the trailer on Hummingbird Lane with Patty the defendant and Patty's boyfriend were you also pregnant at that time yes and whose child were you pregnant with I didn't know who it was did you believe it could have been the defendant's child yes to your knowledge did the defendant believe it was the baby was his objection speculation um overruled and your answer to that was yes yes when did you determine who Aaliyah's dad was um we did like a um we sort of did like a DNA test and did you do that test after she was born uh we had we had like uh DHS do it pardon we had DHS do it okay and I'm just trying to figure out when you learned that information do you remember uh no cuz uh we had have DHS involved all right just to be clear then McKinley didn't know for sure if he was the father of your baby for a time is that right yes and in fact McKinley is not a Leo's dad correct um we didn't we didn't Matthew's not the father of Ayah okay and McKinley is not the father we haven't done a DNA test with M um McKinley friends and acquaintances took the stand to testify to incriminating statements made by the three accused conspirators McKinley Dakota and Logan kimton relating to the murder although their Recollections were questionable tea Meyer was a friend of Dakota Van Patton at the time she told the jury that in the early morning of February 18th Dakota had wanted to speak with her about something important so I closed my door I said so what this what is this about I want to go to bed like what are you here for um and and he was just like why you need to tell you something I said well get off your chest tell me like what's going on and he was like um I killed someone I said who why what the [ __ ] what for and he was like that Melody girl and I was like for what she didn't do anything to you who why would you do that who with what was the reason he was like with Ken that he was with Ken mhm and that he killed someone did he tell you what he did what Ken did no what they may have done together no did he offer any more details about that no he just said it had to be done he just said it had to be done yes critically tea told the jury that Dakota had implicated McKinley or Ken as they knew him directly in the murder however upon cross-examination she began to doubt this key detail of her recollection um yes I I didn't remember at first and then when I've been trying to remember everything I did remember my statement to um police or whatever and do you recall what you said on that day about who he was with I think I said he was alone I'm not for sure and so you think you think on July 25th you said he wasn't with anyone else yes yes 20-year-old Brendan Monson testified that he was mudding with TAA Dakota and Logan kimton in the daytime on February 17th while the group was in their truck he told the jury that Logan told him that he Dakota and Ken had plans to kill someone we were mudding out in Solen what's mudding mudding is where you go Offroad whole bunch of mud and you try to kick it up with your truck okay what did you say about the plans had with those two he said that he had a plan to go murder someone and that it was going to be with the defendant Ken and the Cod of Van Patton he said it was supposed to happen that night I was I didn't know if he was joking or not because he has been known to joke around about killing people in the past similar to the way the defense attempted to discredit the testimony of te Meer they questioned the reliability of Brendan's memory specifically the key element of his testimony that Logan had planned the murder with McKinley generally speaking do you have problems with memory I do and as you walked into this courtroom this courthouse today did you even recall the specific detail that Logan had implicated McKinley lisma and Dakota Van Patton with his statements I don't remember exactly what I said but I remember roughly about what I said and did someone have to refresh your memory of that particular detail today someone did have to refresh my memory on that detail yes no for the questions your honor Trevor wise met McKinley through his nephew Logan kimton Trevor told the jury that McKinley asked him to stay quiet about the time he was spending with Dakota Van Patton specifically he asked him not to tell his mother because the two of them tend to get into trouble when they are together when pressed during cross- examination however he too questioned whether he remembered McKinley stating those words to him now today your testimony was that during that 8 Minute Car ride Ken said don't tell your mom correct is that right correct and that he went on to say don't tell your mom because we he and Dakota tend to get into trouble together is that right correct as you sit here today and you were answering questions under oath did you remember who it was that said that in the car I don't remember exactly but uh I haven't really been feeling too well well today when we asked you you said it was it was M said that as you said here today is that do you remember him saying those words I don't I don't really I don't know though the witness testimony had its limitations digital evidence painted a clear picture McKinley's phone showed his internet search history which included several items online at Walmart including face coverings ski masks and rubber gloves in his phone's map application he searched for both Morgan Creek Park and Lily Lake these searches were performed only a couple of hours before McKinley arranged to pick up Melody from her home on the night of the murder photos recovered on the device showed selfies of Dakota sitting on the bed in T's basement posing wearing Melody's glasses a photo of Dakota was also taken while he sat in the passenger seat of McKinley's car a BB gun is visibly poking out from his waistband this the state says is the supposed weapon that was pulled out by surprise and used to compel him into taking part in the murder perhaps most disturbing was a photo of Melody recovered from his cell phone it showed her with duct tapee over her mouth and a bloody nose she was crying he had a lot going on his relation in his life at that time he had a long-term relationship he was getting back together he had a new girlriend who he was starting to part with with the secret then he had an ultimatum on February 17 2024 the the evidence in this case has shown that the defendant had a past with Melody Hoffman and that she wanted to have a future with him but he didn't ladies and gentlemen the evidence in this case show that the defendant with deota Van Patton by his side strangled Melody stripped Melody mutilated her body and left her for dead on the shores of a chilly rule pond in Iowa County on a cold February night on the final day of trial closing statements were completed by 1: p. m.