AN anguished couple today pleaded for help to end their 13-year torment after the body of their missing daughter was found by a motorway.
Blonde Melanie Hall, 25, vanished from a nightclub in Bath, Somerset, in June 1996 after a row with her boyfriend.
Cops drew a blank despite a massive hunt and no-one has ever been charged over her murder.
But earlier this week workmen found part of her remains in black bin bags by a slip road on the M5 north of Bristol.
A distinctive patterned ring belonging to Melanie was found among the bones which had remained hidden for years.
Her parents Pat and Steve said they hoped the discovery would now produce a new breakthrough in the hunt for her killer.
Steve, 65, told a press conference: "Thirteen years ago we had a young, vibrant daughter, someone with a future in front of her.
"Today we have a bag of bones discarded on the side of the motorway.
"We are looking at an horrendous crime, a crime that has for 13 years caused untold anguish for myself and my wife and our family.
"That anguish will not go away in the years to come. We desperately need to know what happened to Melanie on that night.
"Watching this interview, probably, will be the person or persons involved in her murder or if not, people who know of the people who have been involved.
"I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to everyone to come forward and help us in our hour of need."
Pat, 64, a nurse, said: "We have always believed she had been murdered - early on we decided that was the eventual outcome.
"It is a relief to know at last part of her body has been found and we can now bury her properly.
"But I feel very angry that she's been dumped by the side of the road like a sack of garbage."
She added: "It has taken 13 years for us to find her and now we are relying very much on everybody to come forward to our two other outstanding questions.
"Who was involved in her murder, and why?"
Steve, a former chairman of Bath City FC, added: "We have always believed that someone out there has a pretty good idea of what happened to Melanie.
"Friends of people involved may have a good idea, or suspect that something may not be right.
"I'm hoping that now her body has been found that those people can focus on information they haven't brought forward to the police.
"I am appealing that they find that change of heart and that strength of will to come forward.
"People out there know - they have been living with that secret for 13 years. Now is the time to come forward."
Pat and Steve, who have another daughter Dominique, 41, said Melanie was a 'home-loving' girl who lived with them in Bradford Leigh, Wilts.
She worked in the orthopaedics department at Bath Hospital and disappeared in the early hours of June 9, 1996 after going to the Cadillacs nightclub in the city.
She had gone to the club with her boyfriend of just three weeks, German-born Philip Kurlbaum, and two friends.
Eyewitnesses saw her arguing with Mr Kurlbaum after she danced with another man and she was last seen sitting on a stool on the edge of the dance floor at 1.10am.
Mr Kurlbaum, now 46 and married with two children, was questioned at length after her disappearance but was eliminated as a possible suspect.
He has declined to comment so far at his home near Cheltenham, Gloucs.
There were 800 people in the club when Melanie vanished and officers interviewed 3,800 people.
Cops also conducted exhaustive searches of the River Avon and there have been several TV appeals and reconstructions.
In March 2003 police swooped on a pig farm in the village of Inglesbatch five miles south of Bath and arrested two local men in their 30s.
Tragic
Officers spent two weeks sifting through mounds of pig waste before releasing the men without charge.
Melanie was finally declared dead at an inquest in November 2004 where an open verdict was recorded through of a lack of evidence.
Her parents have kept her bedroom untouched as a tragic shrine.
Detective Superintendent Mike Courtiour told the press conference: "There is clear evidence that she was unlawfully killed and we need to identify and bring to justice the person or people responsible for her death.
"Finding her body offers us a new and crucial opportunity to appeal to anyone with information to come forward.
"Where did she go? Who was she with? Why was she killed?
"I am sure someone must know who is responsible for taking her body to the place where she's now been found.
"I would say to anyone who has kept quiet for 13 years - now is the time to speak out and to help us, and most importantly to help Mr and Mrs Hall."
Det Supt Courtiour said 'several' black bin bags had been used to cover Melanie's remains, which were found on the northbound-slip road of junction 14 of the M5 nr Thornbury.
Police Chief Superintendent Gary Davies added: "The search for Melanie is over - the search for her killer will never end.
"Our commitment to finding her killer is absolute, and we hope this will now provide the breakthrough."