Why?

Why would this man take this woman, kill her, set her on fire, and leave her in this ditch?

That's what police in North Texas are trying to figure in the murder of Melanie Goodwin, a University of North Texas sophomore who was last seen talking to Ernesto Reyes, 20, at a Denton, Texas, convenience store around 1:30 Tuesday morning.

Goodwin's burned body was discovered about 11 a.m. Tuesday about 20 miles away in Carrollton by a guy named Randolph, who I happened to meet this afternoon. Police believe Griffith offered Reyes a ride (at one frickin' thirty in the morning) and it went bad from there.

As a UNT alum, I was interested in this case. And I office less than three miles from the crime scene. So I cruised by there at lunch today with camera in hand to see what I could find out. Not knowing exactly where or what to look for, I entered the lobby of the office building nearest where I thought the woman's body was dumped.

A Carrollton police officer was sitting in the reception area (gulp). I asked him for the location of the crime scene. Said he didn't work that case.

"I can show you," said the man talking to the receptionist. "Can I?" he asked the receptionist.

As we walked outside, Randoph informed me that he was the guy who had found the body.

Man . . . I always wondered about people who find murder victims. It's like they usually are fishermen or hunters or early morning joggers. Randolph, it seems, had just left a job interview.

"They said that I didn't meet the dress code," said Randolph. "So I was leaving to go change clothes, and that's when I saw [the body], laying face-up right over that hill. You couldn't have seen it unless you took a couple steps over the hill."

Wait a minute, I thought. This is Friday, that was Tuesday.

"Do you work here now?" I asked Randolph.

"Yep," he said.

Meanwhile, Goodwin's killer still is at large, and several workers casually came and went in the parking lot, just 15 feet from where Goodwin's two-hour "abduction" ended.