Clearwater police are trying to crack a 24-year-old cold case.

On May 24, 1992, police say 15-year-old Melanie Warren was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting.

  • Melanie Warren, 15, died in 1992, the victim of a drive-by shooting
  • She was an honor student
  • Clearwater PD is asking members of the community to come forward

"Just before 11:30 a car drives by and fires multiple shots at the house, one of the shots striking Melanie and killing her," said Detective Michael Hasty with the Clearwater Police Department.

Melanie was sitting in the dark inside of the screened porch of her friend's house on Jones Street waiting for a ride. The teen was an honors student at Tarpon Springs High School.

24 years later, police are still searching for Melanie’s killer. Detective Hasty says the teen was not the target, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"There was some narcotics activity at the house,” said Hasty. “I believe that the person who drove by and shot was somebody who might have been ripped off or felt they didn’t get what they were supposed to get and they drove by in retaliation and fired at the house."

Hasty hopes someone remembers something or changes their mind about talking to police.

"I’m confident that I could make an arrest on this today if a witness came forward,” the detective said. “Somebody who was in that vehicle as a passenger perhaps that knows exactly what happened and was too afraid to say."

Police say the suspect car was a white four-door Lincoln Continental, possibly a 1978-1979 model, with a sky-blue vinyl half top and oval opera windows. Police say the car was in good condition - it had hub cap spokes, whitewall tires with thin white stripes, and very dark windows.

There’s a $28,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, an arrest Hasty hopes to finally make.

"It is the best part of my job when I get to go stop by someone's house and sit in their living room and tell them after all these years, we got 'em,” said Hasty.

“That’s the best part and that's what I hope to give to Melanie's family."