The family of Melissa Trumpy has endured yet another Christmas without her. The Monticello mother of three went missing in October 2021. Friends and family of Trumpy have said that they believe her boyfriend, Derek Hammer, knows what happened to her but authorities say that he has been uncooperative. Hammer is currently in the Green County Jail awaiting trial on a number of charges involving drugs, weapons and domestic violence, as well as bail jumping. On Tuesday, December 2022, in a hearing before Rock County Circuit Judge Ashley J. Morse, his bond was reduced to $25,000. According to court records, Hammer has already paid $10,000 toward his bond. Conditions of bond include that Hammer has been ordered to have no contact with Trumpy’s family. He also can’t leave Stephenson and Carroll Counties, except to return for his court dates in Green County.

Hammer has an extensive criminal history, including domestic violence and battery. Prison records in Nevada show he was sentenced in 2018 to 35 to 108 months behind bars for battery by strangulation and possession of an explosive device. He was credited with 642 days time served and was granted parole after four months.

A jury trial is scheduled for May 1, 2023. A petition on Change.org to keep Hammer in jail garnered nearly 1,800 signatures. The petition said, in part, “He is a repeat offender in multiple states for bail jumping, fleeing/eluding officers repeater, disorderly conduct repeater, domestic abuse, possession of a firearm as a felon, maintaining a drug trafficking place repeater, party to a crime repeater, possession with intent repeater, Derek is a danger to society. Witness threatening, pulling a gun in front of children, drug use, etc.”

At an earlier court hearing, Hammer referred to the charges against him as “Mickey Mouse charges that will just be dropped anyway.”

Anyone with any information on the disappearance of Melissa Trumpy is asked to please call the Green County Wisconsin Sheriff’s Office at (608) 328-9400 or the Carroll County Illinois Crime Stoppers at 815-244-STOP (7867).