Melodie Riegel, a 19-year-old woman, was last seen at about 10 p.m. on September 20, 1986, in central Edmonton. She had grown up in Medicine Hat and, according to a friend who later spoke publicly about her, had been taking a hairdressing course in Calgary. Friends knew her as “Tasha.” She was described as approximately five feet two inches tall, weighing about 100 pounds, with blonde hair.
When she was last seen, she was reportedly wearing a purple leather jacket, a blue-and-black turtleneck sweater, blue jeans and white boots.
Later that night, a man checked into Room 320 of the Pan American Motel, then located at 10630 Kingsway Avenue in Edmonton. The room was registered under the name “Bruce Stevens,” with the renter claiming to be from Grande Prairie. Investigators later concluded that the name and the claimed connection to Grande Prairie were fictitious. The man reportedly checked into the room at approximately 11 p.m., about an hour after Riegel was last seen. His true identity has never been publicly established.
On September 21, a chambermaid entered Room 320 and discovered Riegel’s body. An autopsy determined that she had been strangled. The available public record does not establish the precise time she was killed, placing her last known sighting on the night of September 20 and the discovery of her body the following day. The Pan American Motel where she was found was later demolished.
The unidentified man who rented Room 320 under the “Bruce Stevens” name became one of the most significant publicly disclosed leads in the investigation. Police publicized information about the false registration in hopes that someone might recognize the circumstances surrounding the man’s arrival at the motel or remember seeing Riegel during her final hours. Despite the connection between the false-name renter, the room and the timing of her disappearance, investigators have never announced an arrest connected with her killing.
The case remained unresolved for decades. In 2011, on the 25th anniversary of the killing, Edmonton police renewed attention on the investigation and again appealed for information, hoping publicity would cause witnesses or people with previously undisclosed knowledge to come forward. Detective Howie Antoniuk said at the time that renewed appeals in old cases often produced tips by jogging memories. The investigation continued under Edmonton Police Service file number 86-154600.
The passage of another fifteen years did not bring an arrest. When the case received renewed public attention around its 40th anniversary in September 2026, Edmonton police still classified the homicide as open and unsolved. Contemporary reporting confirmed that no one had been arrested during the four decades since Riegel was killed, meaning there have been no publicly reported criminal charges, trial or conviction in connection with her death.
A longtime friend, Marina, later remembered Riegel as gentle and kind and recalled that she had once cared for Marina’s young son for an entire summer while Marina worked. Those memories have remained alongside the unanswered question at the center of the case: who accompanied or brought Riegel to the Pan American Motel, and who was actually behind the fictitious “Bruce Stevens” registration. Four decades after she was found strangled inside Room 320, police continue to seek information that could identify the person responsible and finally resolve her homicide.
