ATLANTA — On a warm Saturday afternoon in March 1994, 19-year-old Emory University sophomore Shannon Melendi and 33-year-old Colvin "Butch" Hinton III left their respective jobs as scorekeeper and umpire at the Softball County Club's Field #1 outside Atlanta around 12:45 p.m.

Melendi was never seen again and her body has never been found. After 11 years of suspicion that Hinton was involved, the former butcher and convicted felon will stand trial Monday on two counts of murder stemming from her disappearance.

In August 2004, a DeKalb county grand jury issued an indictment stating that Hinton kidnapped Melendi and caused her death "in a manner unknown to the grand jury at this time."

The indictment concedes a fundamental obstacle in the state's case, namely, the lack of cause and circumstances surrounding the aspiring law student's death.

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Nonetheless, the trial will go forward with a large cache of circumstantial evidence gathered in the early stages of the investigation plus new witness statements.

In a case that touched off nationwide publicity and attracted the attention of former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and President Jimmy Carter, defense attorneys argued that based just on pretrial publicity, Hinton's 2004 indictment should be dismissed.

Melendi's face appeared on billboards throughout metro Atlanta as her family mounted a massive media campaign, which included features on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "America's Most Wanted" and "Inside Edition."

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Anne Workman denied the request to dismiss the charges, and openings statements are slated for Monday.

The day after Melendi's disappearance, friends looking for her found her black Nissan with the keys in the ignition in the parking lot of a gas station adjacent to the ball park, according to court documents.

Three days later, an unidentified man called the Youth and Sex Crimes Unit of the DeKalb County Police Department saying he had picked up Melendi from the gas station and still had her. He also corrected media reports about the color of the shorts she was wearing when she was last seen.

The Emory University Counseling Center received another anonymous call on April 6, stating that Melendi was fine, that he had her ring and would call again to make further demands.

Police traced the call back to the gas station, where they found one of two rings Melendi was said to be wearing the day she was last seen. No further leads developed.

Based on his employment association with Melendi and their simultaneous departures from the park, Hinton quickly became a person of interest. Suspicions about him eventually inspired legislation requiring background checks for umpires, coaches and Parks Department employees in Melendi's hometown of Miami, where a stretch of road is also named for her.

His criminal history included a 15-month prison stint in Illinois for kidnapping and taking indecent liberties "with a teenage acquaintance whom he left bound and gagged in his basement where she was eventually found and set free," in 1982, according to court documents.

Neighbors told police they saw Hinton burning a fire on his property on March 27, 1994, the day after Melendi's disappearance.

Following an interview with the defendant's father, who told police his son had asked to borrow a bow saw from him "for the stated purpose of cutting fall tree limbs," authorities seized the instrument from his home.

They also took a set of butcher knives that Hinton's wife confirmed belonged to her husband. Police also seized five rolls of masking tape, a used vacuum cleaner bag, trace evidence from two vacuum filters and latent fingerprints, according to court documents.

But there was not enough evidence to charge him. In 1996, however, Hinton was sent to federal prison after being convicted of arson and fraud for burning down his home to collect insurance.

During his eight-year incarceration, prosecutors seemed to get the break they needed, when several inmates doing time with Hinton came forward with information regarding Hinton's involvement in Melendi's disappearance.

Further investigation also revealed that in 1976 Hinton underwent court-ordered psychiatric counseling in lieu of prison time for an attempted rape conviction in Kentucky.

Prosecutors are reportedly expected to call women from Hinton's past to testify to his pattern of abducting and assaulting women.

A gag order was issued in the case preventing counsel from elaborating on the specifics of the evidence.

Hinton faces life without parole on counts of murder and felony murder. The latter count stems from Melendi's alleged abduction in the commission of the crime, because the statute of limitations on the kidnapping charge had expired by 2004.

The proceedings will be streamed on Court TV Extra.