PORT ANGELES — She would have been “sweet 16” in a week.
Melissa Leigh Carter, who her friends called Messa Mae, “liked to have fun with life,” said one of the people who loved the teenager found raped and strangled Dec. 26.
“She did what she wanted when she wanted to do it,” Skyler Keller-Melick continued as more than a dozen young people who knew Messa gathered to reminisce.
Messa had lived for 10 years in Clallam County, attending Helen Haller Elementary School in Sequim and Stevens Middle School in Port Angeles before moving with her mother to Salem, Ore.
She remained in Salem for two weeks.
In a letter she left for her mother, Carla, she wrote: “I need to be with my friends. I have to go back.”
Carla Carter said ruefully that she thought Port Angeles, because it is small, would be safer than Salem.
In Port Angeles, Messa did feel safe.
“We were her family,” Keller-Melick said.
Second mom
Kathy Montgomery was Messa’s mom away from home. Messa stayed with Montgomery and her daughter, Ashley, the teenager’s best friend.
“She knew everybody had her back,” Montgomery said.
“They watched out for each other,” Carla Carter said.
