Episode 42. The Haunting Case of Mel Ignatow and Brenda Schaefer: A Tale of Murder, Manipulation, and Double Jeopardy

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Double Jeopardy. In America, it is a rule of law that if you are convicted once of a crime, that you can never be tried for that crime again, even if found later that you are guilty. You may ask, what does it take for a person to get acquitted even if all of the evidence points to that person? Maybe a jury that's just not paying attention.

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Join me as I examine the case of Mel Ignato and the murder of Brenda Schaeffer on this episode of True Crime and Authors. Welcome to True Crime and Authors Podcast, where we bring two passions together. The show that gives new meaning to the old adage, truth is stranger than fiction. Here's your host...

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David McClam. What's going on everybody. Welcome to the episode of True Crime and Authors. Of course, I'm your man, David McClam. Hey, if you guys haven't already, make sure you're following us on all of our social medias. One link to a link tree will get you every link you need to have to the show in the show notes. All right, so before we get into today's case,

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Of course, you know, I'm a proud member of the Luxe Edition Network. It is June, which means we have two more new podcasts of the month that I hope you guys will go and check out. The first one is Barrel Age Chicks. If you're into movies, pop culture, and hilarity, then this is definitely the podcast for you. Make sure you check them out. And the second podcast is Deep Dark Secrets.

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You know, sometimes you just got to give a shout out and praise people for doing the right thing. So I want to give a shout out to K9 and his family. K9 was my door dash delivery driver. Some things went wrong, but you know, he came back to make that right. And I just want to say, if you guys are ordering DoorDash or whatever you do for order, make sure you're courteous to your driver. You never know what they're going through. And for some of these folks, this is their main

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source of income. So K9, thank you for the delivery. Thank you for coming back to make the order right. I hope you and your families having a good one and I hope you enjoy the show. All right, so today's case is a requested case. So I tell you guys all the time, maybe I don't say it enough, but if there's a case that you would like me to do, all you gotta do is let me know, drop me a line, and I will definitely do that one for you. So this one is by way

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of Clark McKnight. I met Clark McKnight in Costco while I was working. He brought this case up and told me that he would like to hear me do it. So Clark, this one's for you. So today we're gonna do the case of Mel Ignato and the murder of Brenda Schaeffer. All right, so you know, I don't like to talk about the actual perpetrator, but in this case,

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We don't have a choice. We have to talk about Mel Ignato. This is gonna be a case that may upset you, but it is double jeopardy in full force. So it just jumps right in. So here we go. Mel Ignato and Brenda Schaeffer had been in a relationship for two years. Ignato knew that Schaeffer had had complained that he was abusive.

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was planning to break off the involvement and he asked a former girlfriend, Mary Ann Shore to help him plan and carry out the murder. They spent several weeks making extensive preparations. Shore testified they had screen tested her house and dug a grave in the woods behind it. I'm sure you guys know what that mean, but I'll elaborate, they screen tested the house.

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meaning that probably Shore went through the house, screaming to make sure that nobody could hear any noise penetrating the walls. On September 23rd, 1988, Brenda Shafer met Mel Dignato to return some jewelry of his that she had in her possession. Instead, Mel Dignato took Shafer to Shore's house, where he pulled a gun on Shafer and locked her in the house.

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Brenda was blindfolded, gagged, and bound. Ignato forced Brenda to strip, photographed her in suggestive positions, raped, sodomized, and beat her before killing her with chloroform. Shore took pictures while Ignato raped and tortured Schaeffer and assisted Ignato in covering up the murder. They married her behind Shore's house, and he took Schaeffer's jewelry

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and the exposed film. After Brenda Schaeffer's disappearance, police quickly suspected Mel Dignato but were unable to locate any witnesses or physical evidence linking him to Brenda's disappearance or even to locate Brenda's body. In search for any lead that could let them move forward with the case, police invited Mel Dignato to clear his name by testifying before a grand jury.

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he mentioned Shore's name, bringing her into the investigation for the first time. The police interviewed Mary Ann Shore, who eventually confessed to helping plan the murder and to taking pictures of Mel as he tortured and abused Brenda. Mary Ann Shore also led the investigators to the gravesite where Brenda's badly decomposed body had been buried for over a year.

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The autopsy showed she had been abused, but any DNA evidence from blood and semen had decomposed. So it took them a year to find her. Sometimes I sit here and wonder, were they looking? Did anybody call anybody? Anybody put any type of missing person? I mean, when somebody disappears for a solid year like that, you would think something would have come out, but nothing came out.

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And to Mary Ann Shore pretty much confess that, yeah, here's where the body is. Let me take you to it. Now the investigators convinced Mary Ann Shore to wear a wire by promising only to charge her with tampering with evidence. Now get that. If you wear a wire for her, is we're gonna only charge you with tampering with evidence, which should be a whole lot more. I would have threw her in the same bucket. Maybe I would have accused Serve Second Degree Murder too because of the fact that

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Well, she helped cover it up. Second degree mariter temporary evidence helping to destroy mutilate or hide a body. I mean, there's all kinds of charges you could throw on her, but they say, if you wear this wire, help us catch mail on the act. We'll go ahead and just lower your charge all the way down just to tend with evidence which don't carry a long sentence term in the beginning. In the surveillance, Marianne Shore told Mel that the FBI was hounding her

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and she was afraid the property behind her house was being sold and developed. He was on tape berating her for letting the FBI rattle her and told her he didn't care if they dug up the whole property because that place we dug is not shallow. Based on this recording, prosecutors charged Ignato with murder in 1991.

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The trial was moved outside the Louisville Jefferson County area to Kenton County, where far less publicity had been generated. In one section of the recorded conversation between Mayor Ignato and Marianne Shore in which Ignato stated that place be dug is not shallow, beside that one area right by where that site is does not have any trees by it, the jury decided that Mayor Ignato said

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safe not sight as police believe. This led the jurors to conclude that the discussion involved a buried safe. Furthermore, Shore, the prosecution's star witness, wore a tiny mini skirt to court and laughed during her testimony, undermining her credibility in the eyes of the jury. The defense argued that Mary Ann Shore, not Ignato, had killed Shaffer.

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This folks is why you gotta really pick your jury or as the prosecutor, you have to reiterate what was said. Now you heard it, according to that, the jury thought that he was talking about a buried safe. Now I guess my question would be, why would they wanna wire somebody up to have somebody talk about a buried safe? I'm sure they wasn't told that this was

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a case about a heist. I'm sure they wasn't told that this was a case about some lost money or stolen money. So I don't know where they would get in their head that this was about a safe. If you are unsure if he says safe or sight, you can ask that question. Now I know you can't stop the trial in the middle, but when you go back to deliberate, you can send a note to the judge with the question of, can you tell us or can you send us the transcript back?

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of when he was talking about whatever it was, the site or the safe. We don't know if he said site or safe, but nobody did that. So that led the defense attorney to do what any good defense attorney would do. Now that the jury is confused, they're gonna flip the script and they're gonna say, because of what the jury's believing and because she's sitting here laughing like a fool in a mini skirt, your honor, we just gonna say,

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that it was Mary Ann Short, not Mel Nignato, that killed Brenda Schaeffer. She has all of the evidence to throw at you. She admitted that she took the photos, she admitted that she helped bury her, and she took them to the site where her body was. So all three of those kinda add up. The defense said, let's just take a stab. It wasn't my client, Your Honor. It was Mary Ann Short. So guess what happened?

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the jury, acquitted Melick Nato, and the judge was so embarrassed by the verdict that he took the unusual step of writing a letter of apology to the Schaeffer family. Brenda Schaeffer's parents died before the trial began, and according to some family and friends, their deaths were premature due to the heartbreak and stress of Brenda's murder.

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Now, I don't know how many cases you guys have heard where the judge was embarrassed. I haven't done many. Probably this is the first one. The judge was embarrassed. That means he's sitting back there going, I don't know how in the free world, after all this testimony, after everything you heard that the verdict you came up with was that he was not guilty.

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This is the danger of being judged by 12 of our peers. Because your fate is at the hands and the mercy of these 12 people. I have sat on juries before. I have watched some jury members. When I get the letter in the mail that says I have been selected for jury duty, the night before I make that call,

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I make sure that I got plenty of sleep. If you guys have never been selected for jury duty before, here's how it goes. You get the letter in the mail. Usually you get the letter about one, maybe sometimes three weeks, depending on where you at, before you had to be poor for jury duty. When you open that up, it tells you now, at least in California, I got to go on a website and I can save myself some time by filling all the stuff out on the website that they sent me in the letter.

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orientation. If I do orientation, that means I don't have to go to court at 8 a.m. I can show up as late as 9 a.m. so I get myself an extra hour's sleep. Now, I could be sitting there all day long. There is no guarantee that you're ever going to get called. There's no guarantee that you're going to even see the inside of the courtroom. You can sit there all day

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from eight or nine to five and be told one of three things. Thank you folks for coming. Everybody come back tomorrow that is still here. You have been selected to go on a jury, go through this door. Or when you go home, go ahead and recall the number in the morning to see if you need it. And I guess there actually is a fourth one, which is you have been dismissed.

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Please see the clerk to get your letter that said you did your time for jury duty, and we'll see you the next time. I have sat on juries and watched jury members fall asleep, twiddle their thumbs, picking up their nails, looking down at the floor. If you ever have to go in front of a jury, I hate to say it, but maybe you should be a little bit scared. You should be watching the jury members.

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making sure they paying attention. Cause clearly in this case, the jury was not paying attention. If they was paying attention, they would know if he says site or safe. And from the way things look, everybody except the jury heard them say site. So the judge was so embarrassed that he wrote a letter of apology to Brenda Schaeffer's family. Now at

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At this point, you would think this case is over. But it's not. Here's what took place, six months after Melick Nottel's acquittal. A carpet layer working in Mel's old house, which had been sold to fund his defense, pulled up a length of carpet in a hallway. Under it, he found a floor vent containing a plastic bag taped to hold it inside the vent.

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Inside the bag was the jewelry Brenda Schaeffer had taken with her on the night of her disappearance and three rolls of undeveloped film. When the film was developed, the film showed Meldick Nato torturing and raping Schaeffer just as Mary Ann Shore had described. Meldick Nato's face was not in the pictures, but body hair patterns and moles

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matched him perfectly. Now, Mel faced federal charges for perjury and lying to the FBI based on his grand jury testimony. Knowing that he could not be retried for the murder because of double jeopardy, Mel Dignato confessed in court at his perjury trial. He turned to Brenda Schaffer's brother in court and said that he had killed her but claimed that she had died peacefully.

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In 1992, Melignado pled guilty and was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison. If you are not from America, if you are not familiar with the double jeopardy law, I personally believe that in some cases, this law should be removed in some cases. I'm not going to say it should be removed completely.

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but it should be moving some cases. Double Jeopardy basically says that you cannot be tried twice for the same murder. So if you were tried for murder today and you got acquitted, the moment that they say not guilty, you can pretty much walk outside on the lawn to talk to the press and say, you know what?

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Jury's dumb, I killed her and they could do nothing because the jury already let you go. This is what happened in Mill's case. Now look at how brazen, bold and cold that he was. You gotta give it though to the FBI because they just wasn't gonna let go. After they found this out, they immediately said, we gotta put him in jail on something. We can't get him on the murder.

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but we gotta make sure he does something so the FBI press those perjury and lying charges. Now Mel Ignato was so cold, not caring, that he looked at her brother and go, yeah, you know what, bro? Yeah, I killed the dog, but don't worry, she died peacefully. I don't know if I would have had the wirrithal not to jump across the table and wanna slap, strangle, choke, whatever I can get my hands on to hit him to Mel Ignato.

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So because of double jeopardy, because of not being able to be retried, he only did eight years in one month for murder.

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And I think that's how you have to look at it because he got away with murder. And the only reason why he was back in court is because that bag of jewelry and the roll of film was found. Why couldn't this stuff be found at the time that he was being tried? It would have been an open and closed case. But eight years, one month, all he got. So they weren't done with mail yet.

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So on October 23rd of 97, Melichnato was indicted on state perjury charges. He was released from federal prison on October 31st of 1997. The state later prosecuted him on perjury charges for testimony he gave in a case against Brenda Schaeffer's employer for threatening to kill Melichnato if he did not reveal where Brenda Schaeffer was. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for perjury

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as a second degree persistent felony offender. Mel Ignato was released from prison for the second time in December 2006. He returned to Louisville, living in a home four miles from the house where he murdered Brenda Schaeffer. So 17 years, one month is all he got for Brenda Schaeffer's murder.

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only because the FBI and the state was able to put purge re charges on him, which did make him a felon, but 17 years taking a life. That's it. Join host Dave Houghton and Sarah Ray Talik as they examine the less glamour side of sports with their podcast in a pickle.

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Follow IAP radio on social media by going to IAP radio.com. In a pickle is now part of the den that for more information, go to IAP radio.com. So of course author Bob Hill wrote a book on the case called double Jeopardy, which became a bestseller and provoked widespread interest in the case. And then MSNBC and court TV also produced television documentaries on the case.

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And Brenda Sue Schaeffer is buried in her family's plot in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. So I believe that the documentary that I watched was called the horrific murder of Brenda Schaeffer. There's I think another one out there, like it said there, but that's the one that I ended up seeing. This was a true case of double jeopardy. I'm sure this ain't the first time it's happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.

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But karma people, God don't like ugly. And if you believe in karma, I believe it came back and got Melignado. So on September 1st, 2008, Melignado was found dead in his apartment. He was 70 years old. An autopsy determined

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that he died from an accidental fall that lacerated his head or his arm, and that he had eventually bled to death. The neighbor who found his body stated that it just looked like he had fell and he tried to go to the kitchen and there was a blood trail that way, and then it looked like he tried to make it to his room. And before he made it to his room, that's where they found his body at.

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Melignado's neighbor also described him as a sick and elderly man, alone and struggling for help when he apparently stumbled to his death. I used to hear him all night asking for Jesus to come get him because he was in a lot of pain. Melignado's son admits he will probably go down as one of the most hated men in Louisville. Maybe it'll just put it to rest that we all don't have to keep dealing with this over and over. That's what I hope.

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If you listen to my episode on why I'm against the death penalty, this is one of the things that I said, which is that nobody can whip you like God can. Now he's praying for Jesus to come back and get him because he was in a lot of pain. I'm sure that he was. I'm sure he was in a lot of physical pain, and I'm sure that he's in a lot of mental pain because sometimes when you do evil deeds and evil things, those things has a way to coming back to get you.

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And I have heard of stories that I will truly believe of people that has been tortured for evil things that they've done from the memories that they have and them reliving certain things and them seeing themselves do things. It's enough that can drive you mad. But Meldech Nato died alone, struggling for help, and there was nobody there to help him. Kind of how Brenda Schaeffer was.

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We screen tested the house. Mary Ann sure said to make sure that nobody can hear her so that nobody can come and save her. So basically Brenda Schaeffer died alone. Even though that there was two other people there, one was torturing and raping her and the other was taking photos. So they're on the same team, which means Brenda was alone. Just like Mel DeGnato died all alone.

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I hope Brenda Schaeffer rests in peace. This is definitely a case that has been talked about a lot is one I wanted to bring to you because Clark McKnight suggested it and wanted to hear it. Clark, I hope you liked my take on it, but this is truly how double jeopardy works folks. And there's a lot of people out there who's committing crimes that banks on the fact that they can go in to court.

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fool a jury and get off scott-free it has happened time and time and time again if not in a murder case in other cases because the person knows all they have to do is beat it one time and they're scott-free they can say anything they want to say and then nothing can be done to them

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So if you ever are called to sit on a jury, or if you ever sat on a jury before, maybe you wasn't quite serious about it, I implore you to please be serious. Do your due diligence. Ask yourself if you were the person sitting in that defendant's chair, would you want an attentive jury? Would you want a jury that's listening? Would you want a jury that's taking notes? Would you want a jury that's asking questions?

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If you say yes to all of those because your life may be in the balance, then you have to go in and give the exact same thing to the person who you have been called to sit on as a juror.

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All right, guys, I thank you for tuning in to this one. I hope you enjoyed it. Once again, Clark McKnight, thank you and your beautiful family for listening to the show. And if anybody has a case that you would like to hear my take on, you can do exactly what Clark did, was he simply just asked me, and I will trump everything else that I had to cover that week and make sure that I bring you the case that you are asking for.

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Alright, so coming at you next week for your author, we're gonna talk to Matt Witten. Matt Witten has written a book called Killer Story. He is also the writer of some shows that you may have heard of before or watched. Like House, Law and Order, Supernatural, CSI Miami. Any of those? Ring a bell.

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Well, I'm going to have him for you next week. It is an enlightening interview. You do not want to miss that. Then for your extraordinary person, we're going to bring to you Jimmy Toro. Jimmy Toro is a survivor of childhood trauma. He's going to tell you the story of how he was raised by a group of sadists. You definitely do not want to miss that.

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So once again, make sure you tune in for author Matt Whitten and extraordinary person Jimmy Toro coming at you next week.

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All right. I think you guys were tuning in with me today. I know you have many choices and options for True Crime podcast. And I'm just glad that I am one of the ones that you have chosen. I hope you are all being good and safe out there and always remember, always stay humble and act of kindness can make someone's day. A little love and compassion can go a long way. And.

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This is the podcast where two passions become one. I'll catch you guys on the next one.

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