LOCAL WOMAN MURDERED AND MISSING IN LOWER MELTOKIO
MARLENE VANN FOUND "STABBED" IN SHOP, THEN VANISHES WITHOUT TRACE
Lower Meltokio pawn shop owner Miss Marlene Vann, 32, of [insert address here god I still don't know why they do this damn you Dashiell Hammett], was reportedly found slain in her shop yesterday, [I'll figure out the date crap later]. Police say that the body was initially discovered by a Mr. Johnathan Hart, of [lalalala again with the addresses], at 7:54 yesterday evening when he entered the shop. Mr. Hart says that Miss Vann's body was slumped over her counter in a pool of blood; Mr. Hart claims that he did not venture in too close for fear of disturbing any potential evidence or concern that the attacker or attackers might still have been present, but says that it appeared as though Miss Vann had been stabbed multiple times with what may have been a knife and that several items had been disturbed, as if in a struggle. This claim is supported by several other witnesses, who came to the scene after Mr. Hart left the shop and called for assistance.
The scene was vacated shortly after Mr. Hart's distress call and the Meltokio Police Department, doctor and coroner's office were called. Mysteriously, however, by the time officers arrived on the scene of the crime Miss Vann's body appeared to have vanished. Police searched Vann's shop and the immediate area and were unable to recover her body or locate anyone who might know its current whereabouts, what happened to it or why. Mr. Hart and the other witnesses present at the time all claim to have been waiting outside of the pawn shop for the police to arrive, and none were able to provide any answers about the missing corpse. All attested with certainty that they had in fact seen Vann's bloody body precisely where Mr. Hart had stated it was. The police have told the *Herald* that the number of witnesses involved gives them enough reason to believe that the story is true, however bizarre it may be, and their efforts are currently centered on locating the body and any suspicious persons as well as examining the crime scene.
Full details have not been made available to the *Herald* at this time; however, the police have stated that a preliminary investigation of Miss Vann's pawn shop has revealed that a violent struggle seems to have taken place, indicating that Miss Vann may have fought back against her assailant or assailants. The police are unable to determine at this time whether anything from the pawn shop is missing or has been stolen; MPD detective Blake Donovan says that, at the very least, nothing large appears to have been removed at this time.
No suspects have been named in this apparent attack, nor have any of the witnesses seen any unusual persons in the vicinity of the pawn shop during the possible time frame of the crime or since then as of this printing.
As the body seems to have gone missing, Coroner Manfred R. Fitzkatz is at this time unable to give a statement concerning the cause of Miss Vann's demise, other than that the amount of blood found at the scene indicates that a stabbing death is highly likely.
Police have been unable to reach and are, in fact, not aware of, any family members or friends of Miss Vann in order to inform them of her disappearance or speak to them about any possible leads.
Anyone with any further information about the events that took place last night, or about the current whereabouts of Marlene Vann's body, is urged to contact the Meltokio Police Department at once to assist in the investigation and the apprehension of the criminal persons involved.
