BODY IDENTIFIED AS TEEN'S; OFFICIALS DECLARE SIMI VALLEY GIRL'S DEATH HOMICIDE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

A body found in Los Padres National Forest over the weekend has been identified as Simi Valley teen-ager Melinda Marie Brown, whose family had reported her missing two weeks ago and distributed fliers around town.

Brown, 18, who had been missing since Nov. 13, was found by hunters about 2 p.m. Friday, just west of the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area. The Medical Examiner's Office identified her on Sunday, and ruled her death a homicide.

At the school she last attended and the bowling alley where she hung out with other teens, acquaintances recalled Brown as a quiet and pretty girl who often kept to herself.

``She was a sweet girl,'' said Jackie Hardile, a counselor at Apollo Continuation School, which Brown attended for her sophomore and junior years. Brown had attended Simi Valley High School, then transferred to Apollo for the 1995-96 school year. She stayed on at Apollo through the end of the 1996-97 school year, and took summer session at a school in Santa Clarita.

Officials said she then enrolled in the Simi Valley Adult School, but officials there said she only attended for a short while during the 1997-98 school year.

Hardile said Melinda was a quiet but well-liked girl, who never seemed quite comfortable in her surroundings at Apollo, which some students prefer to the larger high school campuses because they can thrive like a big fish in a small pond.

``She never got to feel like a big fish,'' Hardile said. ``You really had to pull conversation out of her.''

Friends and relatives gathered Monday at her family's ranch-style home on the east end of town, but none wanted to discuss the loss.

The family had papered the city with fliers during the last week, describing the teen in a photograph and urging anyone who had seen her to call police.

The flier said she had last been seen at Brunswick Valley Bowl, where the manager said she was among the teens who congregated, often just to talk rather than bowl.

Manager Don Stetler said he didn't recall anything different about the night she was last seen.

Police said her body was found about 2 p.m. Friday. She was wearing blue jeans and a pinkish-tan and blue velour jacket they hope witnesses may have recognized her wearing.

The family had reported her missing Nov. 17, after she did not return home, police said.

Police, however, said that unlike searches for missing children, which may involve sectioning off neighborhoods and canvassing an area, there is little to be done when adults are missing and no foul play is suspected.

``When you're 18, you have the right to disappear if you want to,'' said Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams. ``Unless there's some evidence, some indication of foul play, you don't do an in-depth search on those kinds of things.''

Detectives followed up with Melinda's friends, who they said told authorities she had been seen in the area, and then asked her family for more friends to contact, said police Capt. Dick Wright, who heads up the detective unit. He said detectives also sent the family's flier to surrounding law enforcement agencies who may have seen the teen.

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PHOTO Melinda Marie Brown

Missing since Nov. 13