I have had similar responses as many of the corresponded on this board since mid-May, about a year after I signed with Melanie, so I won't take up space reiterating many of the issues discussed. At first I was shocked and saddened by her death, but now I don't know what to feel. Just last week, I was visiting friends in North Myrtle Beach and decided to do a litttle investigating on Melanie. She led me to believe that she lived in and worked from a high rise condo, at least until she "moved to a beach house in May." Not by a long shot. 4009 N. Ocean Blvd is a small, rather unkempt one story house on the other side of Ocean Blvd, not beachfront. When I knocked on the door, a child answered the door. When I asked about someone named Melanie Mills living there, she got her uncle. He said that he was just watching the kids for his sister and had never heard of anyone by that name. Melanie told me that she was slender with long blond hair and the people living here are black. Maybe Kat Baker was the mother of the kids; I forgot to ask. Next door was a two story, again gray, four unit place that seemed to also be 4009. We didn't knock on any doors as it didn't look like anyone was there and it, too, was rather worn. Next we dropped by the neighborhood post office. Yes, there was a box 3929(with mail), and the ladies at the counter said that Melanie did pick up her mail there and that they knew she had gone to Europe a "week or so" before. When I said that I had heard that she had been killed about three weeks ago, they said that it might have been that long since they had seen her. What was strange was, that when I said that she had been killed, they showed absolutely no emotion: neither shock as if they were hearing the news for the first time or sadness that, yes, they had heard the news. Nothing. They just stared at me. We were going to pull a stake-out and see if anyone came for the mail, but my friend had been kind enough to drag me around all morning. We did make one more stop at the weekly North Myrtle Beach newspaper. They had never heard of Melanie Mills, for an obit or for any news article.
I just perused a copy of the registration form for the conference and fear that I gave my SS# as requested. Now I feel sick about giving her that info. Maybe I should call my credit card company and bank???
Oh, in April she had written me w/news that she had sent my one mss to St. Martin's as well as other places. As she gave me the editor's name, I emailed her after the news of her (Melanie's death) and she had nicely replied that she didn't handle my genre and gave me two other editors' names. I wrote one and she responded that she had neither heard of Melanie Mills or my mss and wished me luck finding a new agent. Hmm.
I have written Kat Baker numerous times and have received no reply. I,too, wonder how and when I will get my manuscripts (she had 3), discs, etc. returned. If anyone who is concerned by her actions wants to correspond more privately, reply to this board and we can exchange email addresses.