In the context of injustice, most people think of wrongful convictions and coerced confessions. Rarely is injustice framed as a wrongful acquittal. And yet, that is exactly what happened with Brenda Sue Schaefer’s murderer in a case that rocked Louisville, Kentucky to its core.
Brenda Sue Schaefer was born on April 25th, 1952 into a large family. She had multiple siblings, and her brothers were very protective of her. Brenda was kind, and caring, often looking after their mother when she was diagnosed with Lupus.
Brenda was also quiet and reserved, not one to rock the boat. She enjoyed making people happy, and being a positive, supportive influence to those around her.
When Brenda was in high school, she met a guy, and fell head over heels. The couple married young, and had a hard time from the get go. Brenda wanted out of the marriage, but her parents wanted her to stick it out. Ten years after getting married, Brenda began divorce proceedings despite her parents’ misgivings.
Shortly thereafter, Brenda began working for Dr. William Spalding as a nursing assistant. Dr. Spalding described Brenda as the best employee he’d ever had, her caring and empathetic nature making her very ideal for the position.
Brenda wasn’t one to put herself out there very much, but that didn’t stop her from dating. She met a man named Jim, who treated her well and wanted to marry her. They built a solid friendship, but Brenda was unhappy with Jim’s drinking habits. As a result, she couldn’t commit to being married to him. The couple broke up after a couple of years, but remained close friends. Jim would remain one of Brenda’s closest confidants as she found trouble in her new relationship.
Brenda’s best friend introduced her to Melvin Henry Ignatow as a blind double date. Brenda indicated that she had a good time, and wanted to see him again. He was older, had a good job, and had money. All of this appealed to Brenda.
Melvin Henry Ignatow was born on March 26th, 1938. He worked as a salesman, and had a reputation for not taking ‘no’ for an answer. This attitude persisted in just about every aspect of his life.
Upon meeting Ignatow, Brenda’s family, especially her protective brothers, felt that something was off with him. They found him to be narcissistic. He lied a lot, and exaggerated his own accomplishments and greatness. He was controlling, and possessive. None of this sat right with Brenda’s friends or family.
She confided in them that even though Ignatow could provide for her in every way she wanted, there were certain things he did that made her incredibly uncomfortable.
He treated her as a possession; as an object. He would tell her she needed to ‘loosen up’ all the time. He would try to drug her, or get her drunk in order to coerce her into activities she wasn’t comfortable participating in – especially in the bedroom. She admitted that Ignatow had sometimes used tranquilizers on her, and had gone as far as to use chloroform on her.
This was alarming to all those whom Brenda confided in. They wanted to help. They wanted her out of there. But leaving an abuser is often difficult, and terrifying.
Brenda’s friends tried to get her to leave him, but she would always reply with the same thing: “You don’t understand”. Brenda’s family interpreted this as her not knowing how to leave her abuser in a safe way.
Ignatow was telling people that they were getting married. He’d bought her an engagement ring. He was discussing wedding plans – or demanding them. Brenda was reaching the end of her rope. She couldn’t marry this man – she couldn’t even stand to be around him any longer.
When Brenda was ready to leave, she reached out to her old friend, Jim. He offered to help her, both emotionally and financially. But he couldn’t force her. Brenda took his offer to heart, and made up her mind. After two years of dating, she was ready to leave Melvin Ignatow.
On September 21st, 1988, Brenda called Jim and informed him that she had broken up with Ignatow. She only had one thing left to do to truly be free – she had to meet up with him, and return the gifts and jewelry he had given her over the course of their relationship, including the engagement ring.
Ignatow was furious. No one had ever denied him anything.
He knew Brenda was pulling away, and he thought the engagement would keep her close. His plan backfired. Brenda needed to be taught a lesson. No one left Melvin Ignatow unless he allowed it. And he would not allow Brenda to leave. She needed to be put in her place.
Ignatow began devising a plan. But he needed help. He called Mary Ann Shore. He knew that she’d do anything he’d ask.
Mary Ann had dated Ignatow off and on for a number of years. She was absolutely smitten with him, and fawned all over him. He wasn’t necessarily all that interested in her, but she was good for an ego stroke – or another kind of stroke if he so desired.
Ignatow told Mary Ann about how Brenda had jilted him, and they began devising their ‘lesson’ for her. After weeks of planning, they had every contingency accounted for. And, in case of the worse case scenario, they’d prepared a deeply dug hole in the woods behind Mary Ann’s home. As a contingency.
On the afternoon of September 23rd, 1988, Brenda told her family that she was going to meet Ignatow one last time in order to return his gifts. As she arrived, Ignatow pulled a gun on her, and directed her to Mary Ann’s home.
Brenda was blindfolded, gagged, and bound. The next few hours were horrific. Ignatow raped and tortured Brenda, as Mary Ann took photos. Ignatow then killed Brenda by covering her face with a chloroform soaked cloth. Mary Ann helped him bury her in the hold they’d dug in the woods. Then, Ignatow took the jewelry, and the film, and hid the evidence of Brenda’s murder very, very well.
When Brenda didn’t return from her meeting with Ignatow, her family filed a missing person’s report. On September 25th, 1988, Brenda’s car was found along the westbound lane of I-64. The location of the car was relatively close to her home. If she’d merely broken down, she could have walked home. However, it appeared as though that wasn’t what happened.
The car appeared to have some damage to it. It looked as though someone had tried to steal the stereo and speakers, and failed. Some blood was found on the backseat, and a handprint was found on the back taillight. Police also noticed that the driver’s seat was pushed back, as though someone who was taller, or larger than Brenda had driven it there and then abandoned it. All in all, it was incredibly suspicious, but police couldn’t discount the possibility that Brenda had been abducted as a result of her car breaking down.
While a credible theory, police had a very good idea of what had actually happened. Brenda’s family had reported that Melvin Ignatow was likely the last person to have seen her alive, as she’d had an appointment to meet with him the day she disappeared. Police were made aware of Ignatow’s possessive, abusive, and controlling behaviour. It was highly likely that he’d snapped as a result of Brenda breaking up with him, and killed her as a result.
Police immediately spoke to Ignatow, and took down his alibi. He told them that Brenda had picked him up on her car, as his was having issues. Then, he said, they drove aimlessly, did some shopping, and went to a restaurant at around 9 o’clock. Afterwards, Brenda dropped him off at his mother’s house around 11:30. An eyewitness did place Ignatow at the restaurant – but they said he’d been alone, and had certainly never been there before with Brenda.
Other witnesses had said that they’d seen Ignatow driving his car the morning after his meeting with Brenda – which was odd. If Brenda had had to pick him up due to car trouble, and then hadn’t been dropped off until late at night, when would he have had time to get it fixed? It simply didn’t add up.
Throughout the police questioning, Ignatow gave them the impression that he and Brenda were still a couple; that they were planning on getting married. Which was odd, considering Brenda’s friends and family told them that Brenda had broken things off. It was obvious that Ignatow had not taken the breakup well.
Ignatow’s demeanour also rankled at the lead detective in charge of Brenda’s missing persons case. He acted as though they were friends, like he had a friendly rapport with him, and the other detectives on the case. He skirted around questions he didn’t want to answer, and asked questions, fishing for information. Ignatow left the questioning leaving a sour taste in the mouths of the detectives.
The lead detective called the FBI for assistance, asking them for a profile of their main suspect. The found things that Brenda’s friends and family had already told them. Ignatow was a blowhard, arrogant, and a narcissist. He didn’t like being denied, or rejected. He refused to acknowledge Brenda’s thoughts and feelings. He acted as though he owned her. He even said he wanted to use her to show off all of the things he’d bought her.
In the eyes of detectives, Ignatow was definitely involved in Brenda’s disappearance. But they had no physical evidence. All they knew was that Melvin Ignatow was the last person to have been with Brenda before she went missing, and he was adamant that he had nothing to do with it.
A few months into Brenda’s disappearance, Ignatow received a letter in the mail stating that if her body wasn’t found in two weeks, he was going to die. Ignatow gave the letter to police, who found that Brenda’s employer, Dr. Spalding, had sent it to Ignatow, hoping to frighten him into confessing.
Dr. Spalding was charged with terroristic threats, and Ignatow was brought in, and put on the stand to testify. He was asked directly by Spalding’s lawyer: “Did you kill Brenda?” Ignatow replied in the negative.
Spalding was eventually given a slap on the wrist – he paid a fine, and was on his way.
Frustrated, detectives decided to convene a grand jury. Melvin Ignatow was talking about Brenda in the media, they figured he would willingly testify before a grand jury.
In the course of questioning before the grand jury, Ignatow mentioned his relationship with Mary Ann Shore. This was not a new name to police, but it was a new name in the context of the investigation.
When she was brought before the grand jury, Mary Ann panicked. She broke down, and tried to make a run for it. Which was not part of Ignatow’s plan. She was supposed to be there to sing his praises, not crumble under scrutiny. Police decided they needed to have a very serious discussion with Mary Ann about Brenda Schaefer.
Brenda broke. She admitted to her role in Brenda’s murder. It was damning, but not enough. They needed something to nail Ignatow to the wall.
Mary Ann was convinced into wearing a wire, and meeting with Ignatow. In exchange, she would only be charged with evidence tampering, rather than accessory to murder.
Mary Ann called Ignatow, and asked him to meet her. When they met up, she told him that the FBI were on her back, and she was terrified of them. She said that she was also afraid that the property behind her house would incriminate them, as it had been sold for development. They both knew Brenda was buried in those woods.
Ignatow didn’t quite take the bait. He tore into Mary Ann for being ‘weak’ to FBI scrutiny. He said that it didn’t matter if part of the woods were dug up because “that place we dug is not shallow”. It was as close to a confession as he was going to get.
Mary Ann left the meeting, and led detectives to Brenda’s gravesite. Brenda’s body was badly decomposed from being buried for over a year. They autopsy couldn’t show much in terms of forensics, but the report did state that Brenda had been horrendously abused.
(I had a very, very hard time reading, and hearing, about everything done to her. I refuse to go into detail here.)
In 1991, with Brenda’s body found, and the recording from the wire Mary Ann wore, Melvin Ignatow was arrested and charged with kidnapping, murder, sodomy, sexual abuse, robbery, and tampering with evidence.
The case had garnered so much media attention around the Louisville, Kentucky area that the trial was moved to Kenton County.
The trial began in December of 1991. Prosecutors had their work cut out for them, and Ignatow’s defense was more than prepared to tear the case apart.
They began with the tape of the wire worn by Mary Ann. They posited that Ignatow and Mary Ann were discussing a safe they’d buried – not Brenda’s body, despite the fact that she’d been found exactly where Mary Ann led detectives. While unlikely, it was a defense that could give the jury reasonable doubt.
To dispute the defence, the prosecution put all their hope into their star witness, Mary Ann Shore. This was not a smart move.
Mary Ann did not appear to be well prepared for a court appearance. She was unclear, and inappropriate on the stand. Despite telling her story, she often giggled, or laughed outright, during her testimony, and made eyes at Ignatow, who sat calm and stoic in the courtroom.
The defense had no trouble shifting suspicion from Melvin Ignatow to Mary Ann Shore. She’d confessed to being a participant – she might as well take the whole blame. The jury seemed to agree.
The jury acquitted Melvin Henry Ignatow, sparking outrage in the Louisville community. The judge was flabbergasted. In an unprecedented move, he wrote to Brenda’s family, apologizing for the outcome of the case.
Mary Ann Shore was sentenced to a few years in prison for evidence tampering, as per her plea deal.
Melvin Ignatow got to walk away. But he didn’t get off totally free.
The case had ruined his reputation. In order to fund his defence, he’d had to sell his house, his car, and his boat. He lost multiple work contracts, and was all but fired from his affluent job as a salesman.
On October 1st, 1992, six months after Ignatow’s acquittal, the buyers of his house were starting some renovation work. In the hallway, a piece of carpet was pulled up to reveal a floor vent. The vent was found to contain a plastic bag, which had been taped up inside the vent, hidden in plain sight.
Further inspection of the bag was found to contain jewelry, and some undeveloped camera film. The buyers immediately called police, and turned the bag over.
The jewelry was identified as being the jewelry that Brenda Sue Schaefer wanted to return to Ignatow. When the camera film was developed, the photos depicted everything that Mary Ann Shore had testified had happened to Brenda. Melvin Ignatow’s face wasn’t in the photos, but he was easily identified by body hair patterns and moles.
The brutal rape and murder of Brenda Sue Schaefer was documented in 105 photographs.
Police now had the proof they’d been longing for, but they couldn’t do anything about it. Ignatow couldn’t be tried again under double jeopardy. This meant that Ignatow could not be charged with crimes for which he’d already been acquitted. If police wanted to put Ignatow behind bars, they had to find another way to do it.
Detectives remembered that Ignatow had stated, under oath, to a grand jury that he had not murdered Brenda Schaefer. He’d perjured himself.
Melvin Ignatow was charged and tried for perjury in a federal court. He confessed, and had the gall to state that Brenda had “died peacefully”, further infuriating her friends and family. He was sentenced to eight years, and served five.
Upon his release, the state of Kentucky charged him with perjury, based on his testimony during the case against Dr. Spalding, where Ignatow lied on the stand. He was sentenced to nine years.
Melvin Ignatow was released in 2006, and returned to Louisville.
On September 1st, 2008, a neighbour of Ignatow’s called for an ambulance.
Melvin Ignatow was found dead in his home, at the age of 70. He bled out from an accidental fall through a glass table, which left him badly cut up.
There are very few cases of injustice which result in an incomprehensible acquittal. The acquittal of Melvin Ignatow is one such case that has left a deep, dark impression on the inhabitants of Louisville, Kentucky.
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Sources:
How Mel Ignatow Got Away With Murder And Killed By Karma – All That’s Interesting
Community reacts to Ignatow’s release – Frances Kuo – Wave 3 News
The Generation Why Podcast – Mel Ignatow
Mel Ignatow Wikipedia page