always tough," Lynn Barthelemy said.

The Buffalo native moved to New York City in 2006 to make money to start a hair salon. A man convinced her prostitution offered quick cash and acted as her pimp. But the relationship was turbulent, Lynn Barthelemy said. After her disappearance, her mother found a letter Melissa wrote to him.

"It basically said that she was sick of giving her money up," Lynn Barthelemy said.

Barthelemy began posting Craigslist ads without the pimp's knowledge, her mother said. He found out, and an altercation ensued, she said.

Her last known phone call went to the pimp at 11:58 p.m. on July 10, 2009, but it appears from its short length -- less than a minute -- that he didn't answer, her mother said. She was last seenthe afternoon of July 12, sitting on the curb outside her Bronx apartment.

Date hidden from pimp

Waterman's family was stunned when they learned the high school dropout from Scarborough, Maine, was working as a prostitute. Her maternal grandmother, Muriel Benner, who raised her and her brother Greg, warned of dangers, but Waterman replied she and her boyfriend, Akeem "Vybe" Cruz, had things under control.

"Akeem won't let anything happen to me," Waterman said, according to Benner. She told her aunt, Elizabeth Meserve, that Cruz was in a nearby room during each client session.

Nicole Haycock, 22, who said Waterman was her best friend, believes selling sex had a dual appeal for Waterman: love for Cruz, whom she wanted to please, and money for her daughter Liliana, then 3 years old. Liliana