By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
A Stevens Point woman returning home by bus from a recording session in Nashville, Tenn., was killed last week.
Melissa Anne Haferman-Januskevicius, 20, was found dead in a field in the downtown of Louisville, Ky., several blocks from the bus station, last Wednesday, Aug. 18.
Aaron Graham, spokesman for Louisville police, said Stevens Point police and the Portage County Sheriff's Department were contacted to get a positive identification because local addresses had been found on the body.
Bob Jones, a deputy coroner for Jefferson County, Ky., attributed the death to strangulation. He said the killer used a cowboy belt Januskevicius had received for being queen of the Kellner Little Britches Rodeo in 1994.
Jones said the death apparently occurred Tuesday, Aug. 17. She was last seen alive Monday, Aug. 16, after the bus she was riding arrived in Louisville.
Melissa's mother, Brenda Haferman, 1430 N. Torun Road, said her daughter had gone to Nashville to record a CD.
"She recorded a Christmas song on Sunday and her ear started bothering her and she wanted to come home," Haferman said.
On Monday she insisted on leaving Nashville and took the 6:15 p.m. bus and made it to Louisville where she had to switch buses, her mother said.
That's the last time she was seen alive.
Haferman said her daughter, a 1997 graduate of Stevens Point Area Senior High School, had several positive moments in recent months.
She had begun working with Alzheimer's patients at Encore Senior Villa, a job she really enjoyed, her mother said, and on July 1 had married Tomas Januskevicius, a Lithuanian immigrant, in Stevens Point after a whirlwind romance.
Her musical career was also showing promise, Haferman said.
Melissa sang the national anthem at Milwaukee Brewers' games in 1997 and 1998, her mother said, and she sent tapes to record producers, hoping to attract interest.
A tape sent to producer Hillous Butram, a former bass player for country music legend Hank Williams Sr., resulted in an invitation to record in 1997. "He thought she had possibilities and promise," Haferman said, "but she needed original stuff."
Melissa went to Nashville to work on a demo tape, her mother said, and met another gentleman who had done productions to help others get signed.
"Several independent labels were interested in her," Haferman said. "She sang at 'Lunch in the Park' and was heard by a lady who wanted to get into songwriting." That woman, her mother said, composed some songs that Melissa recorded on a CD.
Haferman said a disk jockey heard Melissa sing and encouraged her. "She even has a fan club in The Netherlands," she said, explaining a group of tourists from that country had met her in Nashville and liked her singing.
A memorial service and celebration of Melissa's life will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, at Boston Funeral Home.
Her mother said other memorials are planned. The Kellner Little Britches Rodeo will use a tape of her singing the national anthem at the Brewers' game as a tribute to her at the start of this year's rodeo.
An obituary is on page 20.