The 1989 disappearance of 5-year-old Melissa Brannen has haunted the D.C. area.
The little girl vanished during a holiday party in Lorton, Virginia. Despite an intense search, Melissa has never been found.
In a stunning new development decades later, the man who was convicted in her case and paroled after 29 years in prison is back behind bars.
Caleb Hughes built a new life in Rocky Mount, Virginia, hundreds of miles away, and was found to have unsupervised contact with children, including as a babysitter, sources familiar with the investigation told News4.
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His status as a sex offender barred him from having contact with anyone under 18, state officials said.
Here’s the story you’ll see only on News4.
An elaborate cover story about his past
After Melissa’s heartbreaking disappearance, Hughes was convicted in 1991 of abduction with intent to defile. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison and paroled in 2019 after serving only 29 years.
After his release, Hughes moved to Rocky Mount, in southwest Virginia, about 40 minutes north of the Virginia-North Carolina line.
In his new home, Hughes told his coworkers an elaborate cover story about his past, sources familiar with the investigation told News4. He said he was a veteran whose wife died of cancer and that he moved to Rocky Mount to escape sad memories.
As friendships between Hughes and his coworkers grew, he offered to babysit their children.
He was arrested this summer after one of those coworkers found him on the Virginia sex offender registry, sources said. To protect the children, News4 is not revealing where Hughes worked.
‘Those children, at a minimum, were placed in danger’
Tammy Brannen, Melissa’s mother, told News4 a parent who learned Hughes’ true identity contacted her.
“I don’t know the extent of what may have happened to those children, but those children, at a minimum, were placed in danger, and it was just extremely upsetting to me that he would be given that opportunity to do that again to another child,” Brannen said.
A source familiar with the investigation said Hughes babysat a 9-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl multiple times over a five-month period.
As a victim of a crime, Brannen said she is privy to certain information. She said she was told the parole board began an investigation and the parents of the children were asked to turn over photos of gifts Hughes allegedly gave them.
“They had been requested to submit pictures of all of these gifts and pictures of his presence and pictures of him playing with the kids in the pool,” Brannen said.
In a statement, the Virginia Department of Corrections said, “The referenced individual was arrested on May 31, 2024, for violating sex offender special instructions. Those special instructions included not having contact with anyone under the age of 18.”
Hughes does not face any new criminal charges. He now is set to be released from prison in 2039.
‘He was determined not to be a threat’
In December 1989 through most of 1990, Hughes was the subject of an investigation. Police quickly identified him as a person of interest who attended the holiday party from where Melissa vanished.
Prosecutors discovered what they described as incriminating fibers in his car and a gap in time he was unable to account for the night Melissa disappeared.
Brannen, Melissa’s mother, called Hughes' recent contact with children “very upsetting.”
She said she had tried to get Hughes civilly committed once his maximum sentence was over.
“That proposal was rejected because he was determined not to be a threat,” she said.
In Rocky Mount, parole agents questioned the parents of the kids Hughes had contact with, and both the parents and the children have been receiving counseling, sources said.
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