Mom Murdered in Front of Kids: Who Killed Melissa Peskey?
She was shot while driving on I-70 in Missouri and police believe she was targeted.
Melissa Peskey decided to take her two children on a road trip to visit with a friend shortly before the Christmas holiday in 2018. Melissa, who worked as a realtor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was driving east on Interstate 70 in Cooper County, Missouri around 10:30 pm on Thursday, December 13, 2018. Suddenly, she appeared to lose control of her car and it veered into the median, then crashed. Her two children, who were 5 and 11 at the time, were unhurt, but Melissa didn’t survive. An autopsy determined that she had been killed by a single gunshot wound that had been fired from outside the vehicle.
Melissa was 465 miles from home when she was killed, and at first investigators with the Missouri State Highway Patrol thought that her death was nothing more than a tragic accident or a random act of violence. Eventually, however, they told reporters that they believed Melissa had been deliberately targeted. Her friends were devastated and couldn’t understand who could have wanted to harm the 40-year-old.
In the week following Melissa’s murder, detectives received dozens of potential leads and followed up on more than 60 tips. Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt…