Sheriff's Office Representative
Appearances
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
The investigators that handled those cases found no evidence to substantiate his claims. Law enforcement DSS couldn't verify any of the information.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
John Mello, I can tell you that a lot of people at the sheriff's office knew who he was. He was just difficult to deal with. He would always make crazy allegations. And then when you wouldn't take him serious, he would get angry.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
Christina had no idea where her daughter or John was. She didn't know if they were in the United States or overseas.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
OK. Bradley Post agreed to allow us to look at his phone. He signed a consent form, a waiver. He gave us his password. We weren't expecting to find anything. But while reviewing his phone, we found some material that resulted in him being arrested for criminal sexual conduct with a minor.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
An upstate man facing several charges of sexual exploitation with a minor will remain behind bars.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
I was personally dumbfounded. I couldn't believe that he just handed over that evidence. For these alleged crimes, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
We had no suspects. And then with the click of a button, it's like, well, we just figured out who did it. Felt like I just won the lottery.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
Our immediate suspects were Bradley Post, because he was Christina's fiance and found her deceased, and John Mello, because they had a previous relationship and had a child together. From the ring and security camera footage in the neighborhood, we learned that our suspect appeared to be male, tall and slender, with very good posture, and arrived on a bike.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
We had been working, I don't even know how many hours a day. We had no suspects. Everywhere we were turning, we were just running into dead ends.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
When we were able to blow up that footage, we were able to tell the person we were looking for was white. Mr. Manigault is African-American.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
I noticed that he's a pianist and there's a lot of articles about him and his accomplishments. I was very surprised. He had no criminal record. I couldn't even find a speeding ticket. Once I have his name, I can pull up every vehicle you have with your license plate within 10 minutes.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
A little after 2 p.m. on the day of Christina's murder, there's a picture of his vehicle coming into the downtown area with a black bike in the bed of his truck.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
The handlebars were the same. The brakes were in the exact same place. The frame was the same.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
We obviously want his cell phone. We're looking for the bicycle. We knew Christina Parcell had been stabbed, so we're looking for any objects that could have done that. They have a detached garage at this property, and then we were able to find the exact bike that is on the flat picture in the bed of his truck.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
Her fingernails were broken, which made us think she fought back. So we believed that DNA could possibly be under her fingernails of her killer.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
Typically, the people that we deal with for murders, they don't wear suits, they're not pianists. For us, this is just all very unusual.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
And then after that, we took him to our detention center and booked him.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
We were convinced that we had the correct person and that he just made everybody believe he was something that he wasn't.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
When we downloaded Mr. Hughes' phone, we obtained over 1,700 WhatsApp messages between Mr. Hughes and John Melo.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
The longer ones, obviously, we couldn't make sense out of, but some of the shorter ones, you can determine what they said.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
We found no evidence that Zachary Hughes knew anything about Bradley Post's alleged behavior prior to the murder.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
Yes. He made me think he just rehearsed it all. which he is a performer. I felt like he was trying to put on a performance. So I just kept striking.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
We discussed all the evidence we had against John Mello already. And then with Mr. Hughes's new statements, we believe there was enough to move forward with charges.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
John Mello is charged with solicitation to commit a felony and accessory before the fact of murder.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
The neighborhood where the murder occurred is usually considered a very safe neighborhood. It's an upper scale, low crime area.
20/20
The Rose Petal Murder
He'd owned several businesses and sold them, retired. He's very wealthy. He drives fancy sports cars, lives in a big house.