Florida Detective Named AMW All-Star Finalist

Inspired Detective Gets Swift Justice for Victims

A Florida Sheriff's Detective whose investigative skills solve cases quickly has been chosen as a finalist in the 2011 America's Most Wanted All-Star Contest, sponsored by Sprint. Detective Corporal Yuri Melich of the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Orlando is the eighth weekly finalist chosen by the public through online voting in the contest, which honors the work of first responders.

In 2001, Corporal Melich's desire to learn as much as he could by working a wider variety of criminal cases inspired him to transfer from a small Florida police department to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, a department made up of more than 1500 deputies.

While working in homicide, Corporal Melich was lead detective on more than 21 criminal investigations. In 2007, Yuri was assigned three separate homicide cases within a 12-hour time span, and he was awarded Sheriff's Certificate for successfully closing all three within two weeks. One case centered on an execution shooting with no witnesses which Corporal Melich was able to tie to two earlier killings; solving both serial shooting cases through in-depth investigation and monitoring phone calls and jail correspondences. Yuri says he's most proud of the work he did as a homicide detective, because taking a killer off the street is one of the "greatest feelings in the world."

Yuri volunteers to work with the Motors Unit every month, where he provides relief to motorcycle patrol officers. Just last February, Corporeal Melich was awarded a Certificate of Commendation for his actions when helped to pull the victim out of a car whose vehicle had flipped upside down in a water-filled ditch.

Detective Corporal Yuri Melich is the last of eight weekly finalists to be chosen by the public in this year's AMW All-Star Contest. Each weekly finalist will be profiled on America's Most Wanted (Saturdays, 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT on FOX). Through online votes, the public will choose the grand-prize winner. In May, AMW Host John Walsh will present the 2011 AMW All-Star winner with a check for $10,000 at a ceremony in Washington DC and the winner will receive a trip to the NASCAR SPRINT Cup Series™ All-Star Challenge at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Members of the public may vote for their favorite first responder once a day, every day. Finalist voting runs through midnight April 10th. Grand-prize winner voting will run April 21st through May 8th.

Please visit AMW.com/allstar for more information.