The Big Dig: Mel ran into the bleachers and I can't find him

I released the Protectron which caused a huge fight, during which Mel escaped prison and ran out the front door. When I tried to find him later, his arrow was pointing up into the bleachers somewhere near or above the mayor's office in Diamond City. I've spent hours running around trying to find a path to him, but I just can't. Thinking this might be a bug, I finally resorted to console commands to summon him to me, but nothing I've try has worked:

help mel 0

This returns a TON of results, because "mel" is in "melee". The only references I can find that might be relevant are:

NPC_: (00052174) 'Mel'
VTYP: NPCMMel (00052179) "

I've then tried prid on both of those IDs (and every number in between), but all of them threw an Invalid object reference error.

If anyone has a solution, either via some hidden path in the game that I just haven't found, or via console commands, I'd love to hear it. I can't progress this quest without him, which means I can't get Hancock as a companion.


Solution 1:

The fallout wiki usually has the refID of most of the named NPCs:

For mel its 0011fc2d

So type:

prid 11fc2d
moveto player

Solution 2:

When Mel runs out of the security office he runs off to the right of the exit to the security office (when looking as you walk out) or to the left if you're looking directly at the entrance to the security office. He doesn't run too far but he doesn't actually run up into the bleachers.