Two bodies matching the descriptions of a missing Vancouver mother and child were recovered off a roadside embankment Wednesday morning, Clark County sheriff’s deputies and Vancouver detectives say.
A passerby reported seeing two “life-sized mannequins” lodged in brush at the bottom of a steep slope off Southeast Sunset View Road in Washougal about 9:40 a.m., authorities say.
Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Skidmore said the medical examiner has been unable to confirm the identities of the two bodies while deputies process the active crime scene — but they appear to match those of Meshay Melendez, 27 and her 7-year-old daughter, Layla Stewart.
“We believe it’s related because they generally match their description, and it looks like the appropriate sizes and ages involved,” he said. “We can’t confirm the identities.”
Vancouver Police said they also believe the bodies were those of Melendez and Stewart, citing “unique identifying genetic marks.”
Melendez’s boyfriend, 28-year-old Kirkland C. Warren, was arrested by Vancouver police Tuesday and was considered a person of interest in the sudden disappearance of the mother and daughter, who vanished without warning on the morning of March 12.
Vancouver Police searched Melendez and Stewart’s home at the Springfield Meadows complex, 4317 N.E. 66th Ave., on Saturday, but the apartment was found empty except for their dog.
Police said Warren was the last person to be seen with the mother and child after the trio spent the night at an acquaintance’s home on March 11 and left together about 6 a.m. March 12. As of Tuesday, Warren was being held on charges of tampering with a witness, violating domestic-violence no-contact orders, committing a drive-by shooting and unlawfully possessing a firearm.
Court documents show that Warren was arrested in December and accused of shooting at Melendez’s apartment in Vancouver’s Minnehaha neighborhood. He was charged with drive-by shooting, second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, gross misdemeanor harassment with bodily injury and two counts of fourth-degree assault. He pleaded not guilty.
Warren was also ordered not to have contact with Melendez, according to a probable-cause affidavit. He was released from jail March 3 after posting bail.
The mother and daughter were last seen in the 7700 block of Vancouver Mall Drive, police said. A car police believe belonged to Melendez was found nearby a week later, on March 19, in the 7800 block of Northeast Loowit Loop.
Melendez and Stewart were reported missing by Melendez’s mother when she learned that friends of her daughter and granddaughter hadn’t seen them for a week.
— Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane
The Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Savannah Eadens contributed to this article.
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