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19-Year-Old Student's Snack Stop Turns Deadly
Melanie Goodwin stopped for a snack -- and ended up meeting a killer.
July 6, 2009 -- No one knows why good and evil cross paths. Why simply stopping to pick up a snack for a boyfriend might turn fatally dangerous. Or why a roadside convenience store became a spot where innocence was lost, where a college sophomore came face-to-face with a remorseless killer.
Melanie Goodwin lived nearly all her 19 years in front of the camera -- a born actress in what would turn out to be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
"When she was a little girl, like 2, she'd be making faces in front of the mirror and just entertain herself for hours," her mother, Peggy Goodwin, told ABC News' Jim Avila. "So we started her in voice lessons and theater classes when she was about in third grade."
Growing up in Arlington, Texas, Melanie Goodwin's best friend, Demyia Pridgen, was always there to help her practice. "As kids, we loved to play," Pridgen said. "We had great imaginations. Melanie always loved to sing and dance, and to laugh."
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Goodwin's father, Glenn, never missed one of her performances. His favorite part of hers was Cinderella.
"She was just the most beautiful godmother you could ever imagine," he said. "She walks out with a crown on and her scepter -- you could just hear the audience gasp."
And her fairy tale was not just on stage: She was living one. A communications major at the University of North Texas, Goodwin had found a boyfriend, Ale Valencia, with leading-man looks and a heart to match.
"We were just two fools in love who were best friends and couldn't get enough of each other," Valencia, now 23, said.
He said he knew Goodwin was the woman for him, forever.
Her deeply religious family was close. She had an older sister and brother who adored her, and she was a star at home. "And, of course, she was my baby," her father said. "So you know, the baby's the baby, and she's my girl."
Her full life was backed by a supporting cast of many fast friends.
"And that's what makes this so hard -- you just can't imagine something like this happening to such a beautiful person," best friend Pridgen said.
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