Some of his earliest offenses include burglaries and rapes in Orange and Jefferson County, Texas, for the latter of which he was given 12 years imprisonment, but served only half of it.

One afternoon, while in the "Timbers Bar" in Gunnison, Colorado, Melanson got acquainted with local ranch hand Charles Matthews, asking for a ride.

[5] However, Matthews' car broke down while on the road, just as Michele Wallace (referred to in some sources as 'Michele French'), who was returning from a backpacking trip, drove by.

While hanging around a laundromat on August 5, 1988, he overheard 24-year-old Charlotte Sauerwin gossiping about how long it was taking for her fiancé, Vincent LeJeune, to save money so they could buy land for a home.

When the other people left the laundromat, Melanson attacked her, viciously raping and torturing Sauerwin, before eventually strangling and cutting her throat.

In August of that year, after Michele Wallace's remains were located, Melanson was transported to Colorado to stand trial for the murder.

In September 1993, he was brought to trial, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder, based on hair evidence collected from her scalp.

[1] It was not until 2000, when a newly enacted federal law obliged him to submit his DNA for testing, when authorities got a chance to solve the other murders.

[4] Since then, law enforcement agencies around the country started reviewing their cold cases, with the hope that they could connect Melanson to any further crimes.