[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SHANNON MELENDI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 25, 1999

  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I wish to share with my colleagues the 
tragic circumstances of a constituent, Shannon Melendi, a nineteen-
year-old sophomore at Emory University.
  Five years ago on March 26th, Shannon disappeared from a park where 
she worked. No one has seen Shannon since that day.
  The prime suspect, a part-time umpire, was previously convicted of 
kidnaping and sexually abusing a child, but served only two years of 
his sentence. This was his third sexual offense.
  Perhaps if this man had served his full prison sentence, Shannon 
would not have disappeared. Or, perhaps if he had received a harsher 
sentence, due to the fact that it was his third sexual offense 
committed against a child, Shannon would still be here today.
  When sexual crimes are committed, we need to ensure that these 
criminals serve their full sentences so that we can be safe from sexual 
predators.
  Shannon's father summed it up best when he said, ``What happened to 
us cannot be changed, but because of what happened to us, changes can 
be made.''

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