CA CA - Karlie Lain Gusé, 16, Mono County, 13 Oct 2018 #3

[Herat]

Assuming that she even did walk to the highway that morning. If the last two witnesses claimed to have seen her between 7:15 am and 7:30 pm, and Karlie's father and stepmother began searching for her at that time, why wouldn't they have seen her? Then, we have this "lead" from a former drug addict who says that he saw Karlie at a party in Tonopah, in 2021, three years after her disappearance. I don't know why this is being viewed as credible. He claims to have witnessed something horrible happen to this girl he says was Karlie, but the part about her being at a party is strange to me if she was abducted. I guess it's possible, but, oddly, we haven't heard anything back on the forensic testing yet. If she had run away, she would have needed money, but she left everything behind, including her phone and the money in her bank account was untouched. I don't think a teenage girl could successfully stay away from her family and not leave any traces of herself if she left by her own choice.

If she was in Tonopah in 2021, I would have to think that she was working in one of the legal brothels along that trucking route in Nevada. As creepy as they are, they do know the rules about verifying ages of their workers, so I don't think she would have ended up working there for 3 years underaged, as she looks very young.

 

[Noirdame79]

If she was in Tonopah in 2021, I would have to think that she was working in one of the legal brothels along that trucking route in Nevada. As creepy as they are, they do know the rules about verifying ages of their workers, so I don't think she would have ended up working there for 3 years underaged, as she looks very young.

Trafficking is a possibility, but again, if her father and stepfather were looking for her during that same period that the last two witnesses supposedly saw her, why didn't they see her? The first witness didn't connect the person he saw with Karlie until Melissa told him that it was Karlie (he claimed to have seen this at 6:30 am). The second witness, who happens to be a friend of Melissa, is the only one who claimed to have recognized the person walking as Karlie; the third witness, "the wooder" said he saw someone who looked like Karlie inside the barbed-wire fence. The timeline that these witnesses gave was between 7:15 am to 7:30 am. The stepmother said she noticed Karlie was missing at 7:15 am and they immediately started searching. One of them would have gone down the street, where Karlie was supposedly seen walking. It doesn't add up.

 

[Noirdame79]

Regarding the clothing description, in the first Facebook Live video, Melissa had already talked to the first witness, which is where she got the 6:30 am timeline from, although she didn't mention it. She said Karlie was last seen in jeans and a T-shirt. The problem is, that this is not the description that the first witness gave her of what the person he saw was wearing. What he told her was sweatpants and a white shirt, which also matched the clothing description that the other witnesses, Kenneth Dutton and "the wooder" gave. It wasn't until after the other witnesses came forward that she changed the clothing description to fit theirs. When Nancy Grace asked her about it, Melissa said she just assumed that was what Karlie was wearing, because she always wore skinny jeans. When Nancy asked her if any sweatpants were missing from Karlie's room, Melissa said she didn't know, because she had so many clothes. Well, if all she wore was skinny jeans, wouldn't it be easy to tell if sweatpants were missing? One theory is that it was Melissa that the witnesses saw that morning, and this is in part because in her first Facebook video, Melissa was wearing a white shirt, and sweatpants - in almost all of her Facebook videos, Melissa was wearing work-out clothes, sweats, etc. The first witness is also the only one who said that the person he saw was holding a piece of paper. While Melissa told Karlie's mother Lindsay this, she didn't mention it in any of the videos she put out following Karlie going missing - in one video, she made a point of mentioning that Karlie didn't have anything with her when she left - she specifically mentioned that Karlie "didn't have a water bottle, don't know what she's got." She never mentioned the paper in the Nancy Grace interview; it was only after Dr. Phil brought it up when they were on his show that she stated that the first witness saw this. If you watch the Dr. Phil episode (on YouTube), not only were Melissa and Zac very evasive, but they refused to give the show any contact information for the first witness and were very vague about the other two. Why didn't they want Dr. Phil to talk to Richard Eddy? Could it be because they know he didn't see Karlie? Your child is missing, why wouldn't you be transparent and put out as much information as possible to help find her? Why would you give misinformation or change your story about what happened leading up to the child's disappearance?

Karlie's older brother Kane (who has a history of drug use) was arrested twice in 2021. The first time, he pointed a gun at his father and stepmother and then pointed the gun at himself. The second time, he got into an altercation with his father. Kane stabbed himself and threatened to slit his own throat. Both of these incidents happened after Karlie's father Zac was arrested for "corporal injury to a spouse". It does make you wonder if her brother knows something. It just seems like too much of a coincidence.

 

[Noirdame79]

I looked up some Reddit posts from when Karlie first went missing, and even then, people were commenting on her stepmother's suspicious and attention-seeking behavior. From writing to a talk show host a few hours after posting her first FB live video about Karlie's disappearance to creating a "Bring Karlie Home" Facebook page within hours and pestering Dateline to do a segment in the first few days following Karlie going missing and encouraging the people who followed the page to also bombard Dateline with requests . . . When they did cover the case, she gave a version of the story that was different from what she stated on one of her FB live videos (which happens to be the version she sticks to). When she was confronted about this by Dr. Phil in March 2019, she said she gave Dateline a false story because it was too early in the investigation and they were told not to give information. I don't buy that for one second, but even if that were true, she could have told the producers that, instead she made a deliberate choice to give what she called a "false story". This loses credibility when she was the one who wanted Dateline to do the segment in the first place. Several people were banned from the public page she set up because they disagreed with the stepmother's version of events, and some of these people were Karlie's boyfriend, his mother, and some of Karlie's friends. Anyone who asks questions or is skeptical of her story of what happened is thrown off the page.

There are three things that innocent parents of a missing child (this can also apply to a person whose significant other goes missing) DO NOT do:

1. Withhold information

2. Give misinformation

3. Try to control the narrative

Karlie's father and especially her stepmother, have done all of these things. The stepmother tried to control the narrative from the beginning, which is not a good sign (several Reddit users back in 2018, found it strange that the majority of statements about the case were coming from her rather than from law enforcement). You want to give as much information as possible, and you want the information to be as accurate as possible because your top priority is to find your child. What other people may think of you is the least of your concerns, it's about your missing child, not about you. The stepmother desperately wants people to believe her version of events. Why? If she had nothing to do with Karlie's disappearance, what does she have to be worried about?

Karlie's father never appeared in any of the FB Live videos; he has done a few interviews here and there and spoke at the press conference a year after Karlie disappeared, but he has rarely spoken beyond that. His excuse is that he doesn't do social media, but that's a lame excuse when your child is missing. (I do have a theory as to why he doesn't speak out as much and why the stepmother has done most of it). The stepmother acts as if she is the victim, another red flag. Their evasiveness in interviews is another. Again, you want to get all the information out there because that is crucial in finding your child, holding back is going to make it harder to find the child, and giving misinformation will jeopardize the chances of the child being found.

Since we're on this subject, how many missing persons cases have you heard of where you're told not to share information? In my experience, whenever this is brought up, it's usually because there's something to hide and/or because law enforcement botched the case and doesn't want to admit it. This does seem to ring true (the stepmother is friends with the sheriff, the two attended school together, so that is an important factor as well). There is very little activity on the public FB page, which leads me to believe that there are no active searches for Karlie and there haven't been any for a long time. Even the "tip" from Tonopha mentioned in the documentary last year is at least two years old.

 

[Noirdame79]

The last text message that the stepmother Melissa sent to Karlie's boyfriend was at 8:28 am, and she stated, "I think it was more than weed. She is acting like she is on Meth." The boyfriend texted, "Is she with you?" No response. Remember that Melissa stated that she woke up at 7:15 am and noticed that Karlie was missing, and she and Karlie's father Zachary searched for Karlie for the next two hours, before returning to the house and reporting Karlie missing at 9:30 am. When she sent that last text to Donald (Karlie's boyfriend) she was by the account that she later gave, out searching for Karlie, but made no mention of this and never responded when he asked if Karlie was with her, which again, doesn't fit with the narrative the stepmother was giving. When she described Karlie's behavior in that final text message, she stated that as if Karlie was currently acting that way, and made no mention of not being able to find Karlie or being out searching for her. This is another part that doesn't fit the account she has given.

The marijuana that Karlie, her boyfriend, and their friends smoked that night was tested, and it was not laced, so that's a theory that can be discarded. Karlie may have taken something else that night before the stepmother picked her up, but this can't be confirmed. By Donald's account, Karlie became very frightened that night and ran away from him, we don't know why she was behaving that way, but it might not have been because she was "paranoid" because of drugs. She might have been afraid for another reason. After she ran away from her boyfriend, the rest of the account of what happened after that is from her stepmother, and to a lesser extent her father, and in my opinion, they are not reliable. Both Melissa (especially) and Zachary have repeatedly stated that Karlie was acting paranoid that night as if they want to persuade people to believe that. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Karlie was not paranoid, and that she was genuinely afraid of someone or something and she may have suffered an injury that night, possibly a head injury, which could explain her behavior on the audio recording (the brief portion that was played on the PEOPLE documentary), and why it was only audio, not because her stepmother wanted to show her what she was like on drugs (the fact that she did that recording without Karlie's knowledge and consent is very invasive, IM0) but because she didn't want anyone to see what Karlie looked like (i.e. evidence of injuries). Melissa had her car detailed the next day, which she tried to explain away in her October 22, 2018, FB Live video with, "I drove my car in the Boonies, over boulders" during those few hours in the morning when she was supposedly out searching. When Karlie said, "You're going to kill me" and "Don't kill me", it sent shivers down my spine. She sounded terrified. I just can't shake the feeling that something was very wrong in that household. While Karlie's father has been clean and sober for three years, it's clear that he had alcohol issues (he sounded drunk in the Nancy Grace interview, conducted less than two weeks after Karlie's disappearance), and his arrest in in early 2021 for "corporal injury to a spouse" is confirmation that he could be violent at times.

While I'm not a fan of Dr. Phil McGraw, I agree with him when he said to Karlie's father and stepmother, "People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing." They refused to give him contact information for the first witness, Richard Eddy, and the obvious reason is that they know that it wasn't Karlie that he saw that morning (which leads to the conclusion that the other two witnesses didn't see Karlie that morning either, they saw . . . someone else. Can you guess who that person was?) The Guses lawyered up, which may be why McGraw backed down in the second episode (contrary to what some claim, he only heard a few minutes of the audio). I mentioned the lack of posting in the past few years on the public FB that the stepmother set up, and it's interesting to note that in all her FB live videos in the weeks following Karlie's vanishing, she never expressed any concern for Karlie's well-being; she would tell people watching the videos to share them, and to make flyers, but she made a point of discouraging them to help in the search for Karlie, "no footwork" as she put it. Her goal was not to help find Karlie, she wanted to control the information and narrative, which again, is not something that an innocent parent of a missing child would do. Her father has barely made any statements at all, which is bizarre given that he was both Karlie's biological and custodial parent.

 

[Noirdame79]

The interview that Karlie's father and stepmother did on Nancy Grace's podcast, on October 26, 2018

In contrast, here they are on Dr. Phil in March 2019

I noticed that several YouTube channels that were doing a deep dive on this case when it first happened, suddenly stopped making videos about it, even if they were planning to do a series of videos. Were they threatened with legal action? On a subreddit dedicated to Karlie's case, there is a certain poster who makes a point of defending her father and stepmother and attacking Karlie's mother and the private investigator she hired. This person really tries to persuade others into believing the stepmother's version of events and is promoting the idea that Karlie was either abducted or wandered into the desert and died.

 

[Noirdame79]

Here's part 2 of their appearance on Dr. Phil. Karlie's mother was interviewed in this second half. Notice that the stepmother wears a key around her neck, and and one point she says, "The key to the treasure chest where she's hiding"? Karlie's mother has every right to be suspicious; the father and stepmother have shut her out and won't give her information, and Karlie went missing on their watch. The stepmother plays the victim, which annoys me to no end. Instead of being defensive, she and Karlie's father should have done everything possible to reassure Karlie's mother they were not involved in her disappearance, and be open with her, and they should be united in looking for Karlie. The fact that they are more interested in defending themselves than finding Karlie speaks volumes.

 

[Noirdame79]

Different photos of Karlie

 

[Noirdame79]

Karlie and her mother Lindsay



Karlie and her boyfriend Donald



Karlie and her father Zac



Karlie and her stepmother Melissa



Karlie's stepmother Melissa at a company Halloween party, October 31, 2018



Not only does it seem strange that she was looking so happy so soon after Karlie's disappearance (I know people can deal with tragedy differently, but this was too soon in my opinion) but you can see what she looked like with her hair down. In the early morning hours of October, it would be quite dark outside, and if it was Melissa that the witnesses saw it would be difficult, depending on the distance - for them to know for sure that it was Karlie walking outside.

 

[Noirdame79]

Keep in mind that this press conference took place on October 11, 2019, almost a year to the day of Karlie's disappearance. Why did it take this long to have a press conference? This was also the first, and as far as I know, the only time where Karlie's father Zachary, and stepmother Melissa ever made any public appeals to Karlie to come home or made any pleas to anyone who might have abducted her. Karlie's mother Lindsay, who also spoke at the press conference, was making public pleas via social media early on, but Melissa and Zac did not do that until this, which is bizarre considering all the Facebook Live videos the stepmother did, and the interviews they gave (they had already appeared on Dr. Phil by this point). I found it odd that Melissa was clutching a blanket - it's not as if Karlie was a baby or a toddler when she went missing. She misses "arguing with Karlie" and her "stealing the clothes out of my closet" - of all the things you can say, you say that? When Zac, in his plea to Karlie, told her to "get away" from any abductors who might have her, that struck me as really strange as if he was replacing responsibility onto her. As for any "information" revealed at this press conference, it was much ado about nothing. No new information, and I don't buy the "we can't reveal information because it will compromise the investigation" blah blah. Excuses. Again, this is about a missing child, all the effort and information should have been put forth early on, just as these public pleas should have been done within days, if not hours, after Karlie went missing.

This entire "investigation" has been shady from the start. According to Lindsay, LE didn't search the Guse house until several hours after Karlie was reported missing, and by then, several people had been in and out of the house, therefore evidence was potentially damaged and/or destroyed. Within a week of Karlie's disappearance, people were flooding the Mono County Sheriff's Department Facebook page, asking for information, updates, a press conference, or to look into Karlie's stepmother (several of Melissa's friends got defensive and started arguing with them). Several people commented on how they had been blocked from the public Facebook page that Melissa had set up for simply asking questions or making suggestions. They also commented on the strange choice the stepmother made to create a private Facebook group where the members are not allowed to share anything outside the group, which is supposed to be about finding her stepdaughter. That makes no sense whatsoever. Someone even contacted the District Attorney, who responded that they reached out to the Mono County Sheriff's Office to assist in the investigation, but they never heard back and their calls were not returned. The Sheriff's Office claimed that they did try to reach out to the D.A.''s Office but got no response, and then claimed "the District Attorney's Office does not have the capacity or authority to request the resources for the search that was conducted. Nor is this the kind of case that falls under their jurisdiction." Someone is not being truthful, and I'm not just referring to Karlie's stepmother and father. Something's not right here. A few weeks later, people were also commenting on the photos of the stepmother that were taken at her company Halloween party 19 days after Karlie went missing.

My heart breaks for Karlie. She deserved so much better. Her mother deserves answers, as do others who truly love her.

 

[Noirdame79]

Jaymes Dulin, the mutual friend of Karlie and her boyfriend Donald, who was 17 at the time of Karlie's disappearance, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor when he turned 18 regarding the weed he provided to Karlie, but was not charged for providing weed to the other teenagers present that night. The Mono Sherriff's Office also threatened the other teenagers who smoked with Karlie that night with arrests if they didn't hand over the bong that held the marijuana.




These are stills from surveillance footage of Karlie and her boyfriend Donald arriving and leaving the home of Jaymes Dulin on October 12, 2018, who drove them there and later drove them to Donald's house when Karlie started acting scared. You can see in the first stills that Karlie was wearing her glasses, which were also left behind when she "disappeared" early the next morning.

March 21, 2019
Update: Mom of missing teen Karlie Gusé files formal complaint against sheriff, claims she ignored valid tips & mismanaged case

The mother of a California teen who mysteriously disappeared five months ago said she’s furious with the sheriff’s office put in charge of her daughter’s case.

Lindsay Fairley, mom of 16-year-old Karlie Gusé, shared a letter with CrimeOnline that she sent to the California Sheriff’s Association and the National Sheriff’s Association earlier this week. Fairley addressed several issues on her mind, specifically, problems she said she’s been having with Sheriff Ingrid Braun of the Mono County Sheriff’s Office; Fairley claimed Braun has been negligent in handling Karlie’s disappearance and “unsympathetic and argumentative” with her.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, Karlie is said to have disappeared from her Mono County home somewhere between the hours of around 5:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on October 13, 2018. The girl’s stepmother, Melissa Gusé, told CrimeOnline she picked Karlie up the night prior in “town,” miles away from the family’s rural home on the outskirts of Bishop near White Mountain Estate Road.

Karlie lived in the home with her stepmother, her father Zac Gusé, and her younger siblings. Fairley told CrimeOnline it was Karlie’s choice to live with her dad, as she didn’t want to change schools when she moved from the area.

Update: Mom of missing teen Karlie Gusé files formal complaint against sheriff, claims she ignored valid tips & mismanaged case [Exclusive]

The mother of a California teen who mysteriously disappeared five months ago said she’s furious with the sheriff’s office put in charge of her daughter’s case. Lindsay Fairley, mom of 16-year-old Karlie Gusé, shared a letter with CrimeOnline that she sent to the California Sheriff’s Association...

www.crimeonline.com

Karlie Gusé has been missing for five months: the 16-year-old California native has been missing since Oct. 13, 2018.

Her family appeared on Dr. Phil for a two-part special starting Monday, March 25: Zachary and Melissa Gusé spoke about Karlie’s disappearance months after it happened. The two began looking for Karlie soon after they realized their child was missing the morning of the 13th; since then, the local law enforcement, the FBI, and other concerned people nationwide have joined them in their search.

Lindsay Fairley, Karlie’s biological mother, is “furious” with the way the Mono County Sheriff’s Office has handled her daughter’s case. She claimed Sheriff Ingrid Braun ignored tips regarding the disappearance in a complaint sent in mid-March to the California Sheriff’s Association and the National Sheriff’s Association. Braun told CrimeOnline that Fairley’s letter was “factually incorrect and filled with errors.” Braun also said she “runs the department, not investigations.”

Fairley also attacked Melissa Gusé in the letter: she claimed Melissa “cherry-picked” information about Karlie’s disappearance.

Melissa is a key person in Karlie’s case. She was the last person to see and talk to Karlie. Melissa has talked about Karlie’s disappearance multiple times, on a variety of platforms—but her story hasn’t always been consistent.

Who Is Melissa Gusé? 5 Details About Missing Child Karlie Gusé

Karlie's biological mother is not happy with her.

www.yourtango.com

 

[Noirdame79]

Karlie's father, Zachary Guse, in one of a series of videos made by the FBI in 2021. I noticed that he has the tendency (he did this on Dr. Phil as well) to look up, as if up to the heavens, when talking about looking for Karlie or what might have happened to her. In another video in this series, he talked about how he found it hard to go into Karlie's room but then decided that he wanted to "let the light in". (These videos of him were filmed in Karlie's bedroom). At one point, he said, "I'm tired of leaving her in the dark", which seems like an odd way to phrase it. He said that she either wandered into the desert and died or "she got into the wrong car with the wrong person." Telling the person who might have taken Karlie, "God be with you" before correcting himself and trying to sound more like a grieving parent. One of the things that he and Melissa have said regarding their behavior is "there's no handbook" as to how to act in these situations, and while that is technically true, so many of the things they have done make no sense whatsoever, considering that their child is missing.

Karlie's nose was pierced on the right side, as this photo shows.



On October 25, 2018, Karlie's stepmother Melissa Guse announced on Facebook that the Mono County Sherriff's Office had exhausted all their searches for Karlie, which is both heartbreaking and suspicious. I also found it strange that in her October 22 Facebook Live video, she defended her decision not to seek medical attention for Karlie that night because "she was high on marijuana, why would I?" Yet in her last text to Karlie's boyfriend Donald Arrowood III (whom she refers to as Karlie's friend rather than a boyfriend), she said, "I think it was more than weed. She is acting like she is on Meth." On Dr. Phil in March 2019, Melissa and Zac both stated they could tell right away that it wasn't just marijuana causing Karlie to act "paranoid" and stated that they suspected that the weed had been laced with Meth (which was disproven as the bong was tested and it only had marijuana, and Karlie's boyfriend even posted on Facebook in response to Melissa, "you know it was just weed", he was banned from the public Facebook page supposedly dedicated to bringing Karlie home soon after). Which is it? It seems to me that Melissa and Zac have lost track of their story, which is common with deception, IMO. The fact that they and the Mono County Sheriff's Office have also shut out Karlie's mother Lindsay and have even been pointing fingers at her and accusing her of lying is even more suspicious. The last post that was made on the public Bring Karlie Home Facebook page was in December, and that post was unrelated to Karlie. Maybe there is more activity in the private group (the one where the members are not allowed to share information, which defeats the purpose of having a group that is supposed to be about finding her) but I find it very disheartening that no effort is being made to find Karlie.

 

[Noirdame79]

On October 10, 2019 (the day before the press conference) Zachary and Melissa Guse appeared in a video from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children where they pleaded for Karlie to come home. Again, this is something that should have been done earlier, not a year later.


I do think there is some genuine emotion on their part, but there are also times when it feels like an act, IMO.

Melissa undermined herself in her October 22, 2018, Facebook Live video when she defended her decision not to take Karlie to the hospital because she had only smoked marijuana. "It didn't cross my mind, she was fine." Then she proceeded to repeatedly say how "paranoid" Karlie was acting, which contradicts her prior statement that Karlie was "fine".

In her story to Dateline (which she claims was false because it was too early in the investigation) she said she noticed Karlie was missing when she did her usual routine of opening the kids' bedroom doors to say good morning to them (remember it was a Saturday) and that was when she noticed Karlie was missing. In the video on October 22 2018 and what she has stated since, she says that she slept in bed with Karlie at her stepdaughter's insistence (she was texting Karlie's boyfriend on and off) and she woke up at 7:15 to find Karlie "gone", and her bedroom door was slightly open. Melissa said, "Her door was open, so I couldn't have heard that." Not only did she seem very uncomfortable, and she quickly moved on to how she started looking for Karlie all around the house, but she was trying to justify why she didn't hear Karlie get up and leave. The fact that she felt the need to do that is fishy, in my opinion. In the interview with Nancy Grace on October 27, Nancy asked Melissa if they lock their door (obviously referring to the front door, and any other door in which someone could gain access inside the house). There was a pause, and then Melissa replied, "No, we don't lock our house." She didn't elaborate. Melissa kept saying, "I was in bed with Karlie all night", even as Nancy was asking if it was possible for an intruder to have entered the house as if to distance herself from the door as if she expected to be accused of opening it or something. She also tried to speak for Zac, who as I mentioned before, sounded drunk. He couldn't describe what "paranoid" meant in terms of how Karlie was supposedly acting, but on Dr. Phil in March 2019, he was able to give a much better description of Karlie's behavior. Interesting.

As I said, Melissa rarely posts about Karlie on her Facebook page, Zac doesn't do social media, Kane (Karlie's brother) also hasn't posted about Karlie for a long time. Lindsay (Karlie's mother) seems to have deleted her Facebook, she's been very quiet the past two years or so, which leads me to suspect that she may have been threatened with legal action (just speculation) or has been dealing with harassment. The Mono County Sheriff's Office posts about Karlie about twice a year on their page, on her birthday and the anniversary of her disappearance, but haven't given any new information. The person who posts the most about Karlie is her boyfriend Donald. Although he has moved on, it's clear that he still loves Karlie, misses her, and hopes that she will be found. Interestingly, he's friends on FB with Melissa and Kane even though he was banned from the public Bring Karlie Home page. In her Facebook videos, Melissa said that what needed to be focused on is that Karlie is just "gone", not the details, and interestingly, the Mono County Sheriff's Department made a similar statement, i.e. "The details aren't important, all that matters is that she's missing". Huh? The details are important. It makes no sense.

Something that has also struck me and many others as strange is that the most Melissa referred to Karlie in her Facebook videos were when she was addressing her followers and members of the page and group as "Team Karlie". "Go Team Karlie, let's bring Karlie home" etc, over and over again. This isn't a game or sporting event, but that's what it sounds like. Keep in mind, at the same time she was telling people not to help search, not to talk about it with their kids (and even made the bizarre statement that she didn't want any kids to talk about the case at school), that they were not allowed to share information outside of the private group, etc. In the beginning, she wanted people to share her videos, but she put the kibosh on that and insisted that her videos were only for the private group. She would encourage members to share the group to get more people to join, but all other information stays inside the group, and the only thing the members are "allowed to do" is make and post flyers. Just some food for thought.

 

[Mert]

Thank you for these posts, Noirdame79.
I appreciate your efforts and I very much wish that Karlie would be found and soon.

 

[Noirdame79]

Thank you for these posts, Noirdame79.
I appreciate your efforts and I very much wish that Karlie would be found and soon.

You're welcome. This is such a frustrating case, there are so many red flags and unanswered questions. I think it's obvious that LE dropped the ball early on. I could be wrong about the mother and stepfather, but there are so many things that don't add up. I'm not trying to be a know-it-all (really, I'm not), but there's so much that's not being talked about.

Karlie deserves so much better.

 

[Noirdame79]

You're welcome. This is such a frustrating case, there are so many red flags and unanswered questions. I think it's obvious that LE dropped the ball early on. I could be wrong about the mother and stepfather, but there are so many things that don't add up. I'm not trying to be a know-it-all (really, I'm not), but there's so much that's not being talked about.

Karlie deserves so much better.

I meant to say the stepmother and father. Oops!

 

[Noirdame79]

The house where Karlie lived with her father, stepmother, and two younger brothers, Bishop, California (White Mountain Estates, Chalfant Valley)



Karlie did have a car, but for some reason, she wasn't driving it in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, which was why she was taking the bus to and from school and was relying on others to take her places. It was cold the morning of her disappearance, so if she was out walking only wearing a T-shirt and pants, she would have become cold very quickly (it also tends to be very windy there). Karlie left everything behind - her phone, money, glasses, etc. Zac did say in the interview with Nancy Grace that Karlie told him that night when Melissa brought her home that she didn't feel safe. Yet, they expect people to believe that in her frightened state, Karlie would have left the house in the early morning, in the cold, not dressed appropriately, leaving everything behind, and walked to the highway. If Karlie was so "paranoid" as they put it, it seems implausible that Melissa, if she was in bed with Karlie, didn't hear her get up and leave, open door or not. Melissa claims that she woke up and Karlie was "gone" - that is a commonly used alibi for parents who kill their children and cover it up. The story that Karlie was "paranoid" due to drugs and just walked out of the house that morning seems like a convenient cover, IMO. By emphasizing Karlie smoking marijuana, being "paranoid" and portraying her as high-risk, they knew people would take that and run with it, and many people have. Now people are speculating that Karlie had some kind of psychotic break brought on by marijuana (which does happen but appears to be relatively rare) and the "eyewitness accounts" seem to cement that, however, eyewitness accounts aren't always accurate, and I think there are enough discrepancies in that as well as in Melissa and Zac's stories, to cast doubt. They want people to believe that Karlie was abducted and possibly trafficked.

While Zac has been sober for the past three years, his alcohol issues go back at least as far as when Karlie was a baby. According to Karlie's mother Lindsay, during their marriage, Zac would often drink heavily when he came home from work and would become angry and violent, smashing things, and even becoming violent with her. After their divorce, and Kane and Karlie were living with Zac and Melissa, Kane would call Lindsay and tell her that he and his father had gotten into physical altercations, which confirms that Zac and Kane's 2021 domestic violence arrests are not isolated incidents. Kane was also heavily involved in drugs in his teens and early adulthood, but it appears that he is also doing better now.


According to the public Bring Karlie Home Facebook page, the reason why Melissa rarely posts there is because she is "burned out" by social media and feels that she has been attacked. A post from Melissa from July 2023 was shared and she praised the People documentary and stated that it wasn't going to be a "drama like on Dr. Phil". I find that somewhat humorous because it was Melissa who made the latter into a drama. Acting evasive and defensive, and when Lindsay voiced concerns about Zac and Melissa not being open and honest with her, Melissa felt the need to shriek, "Because I'm her stepmom? Because I didn't give birth to her?" when Lindsay never said or implied anything like that. Melissa tends to play the victim and make everything about her. In her mind, she is the victim, not Karlie, IMO. While Dr. Phil appeared to have sided with Zac and Melissa by the end, I get the feeling that they received a lot of criticism for their appearance on that show because in the few interviews they've given since, not only do they appear much more subdued, but it seems like the interviews since have always been on their terms. That's why they don't go into detail about the circumstances surrounding Karlie's disappearance, i.e. what happened that night and morning, or any issues that might have been happening inside the home. Lindsay did try to be included in the People documentary but was essentially told to stay out of it.

 

[Evilxelvis138]

The house where Karlie lived with her father, stepmother, and two younger brothers, Bishop, California (White Mountain Estates, Chalfant Valley)

View attachment 500705

Karlie did have a car, but for some reason, she wasn't driving it in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, which was why she was taking the bus to and from school and was relying on others to take her places. It was cold the morning of her disappearance, so if she was out walking only wearing a T-shirt and pants, she would have become cold very quickly (it also tends to be very windy there). Karlie left everything behind - her phone, money, glasses, etc. Zac did say in the interview with Nancy Grace that Karlie told him that night when Melissa brought her home that she didn't feel safe. Yet, they expect people to believe that in her frightened state, Karlie would have left the house in the early morning, in the cold, not dressed appropriately, leaving everything behind, and walked to the highway. If Karlie was so "paranoid" as they put it, it seems implausible that Melissa, if she was in bed with Karlie, didn't hear her get up and leave, open door or not. Melissa claims that she woke up and Karlie was "gone" - that is a commonly used alibi for parents who kill their children and cover it up. The story that Karlie was "paranoid" due to drugs and just walked out of the house that morning seems like a convenient cover, IMO. By emphasizing Karlie smoking marijuana, being "paranoid" and portraying her as high-risk, they knew people would take that and run with it, and many people have. Now people are speculating that Karlie had some kind of psychotic break brought on by marijuana (which does happen but appears to be relatively rare) and the "eyewitness accounts" seem to cement that, however, eyewitness accounts aren't always accurate, and I think there are enough discrepancies in that as well as in Melissa and Zac's stories, to cast doubt. They want people to believe that Karlie was abducted and possibly trafficked.

While Zac has been sober for the past three years, his alcohol issues go back at least as far as when Karlie was a baby. According to Karlie's mother Lindsay, during their marriage, Zac would often drink heavily when he came home from work and would become angry and violent, smashing things, and even becoming violent with her. After their divorce, and Kane and Karlie were living with Zac and Melissa, Kane would call Lindsay and tell her that he and his father had gotten into physical altercations, which confirms that Zac and Kane's 2021 domestic violence arrests are not isolated incidents. Kane was also heavily involved in drugs in his teens and early adulthood, but it appears that he is also doing better now.


According to the public Bring Karlie Home Facebook page, the reason why Melissa rarely posts there is because she is "burned out" by social media and feels that she has been attacked. A post from Melissa from July 2023 was shared and she praised the People documentary and stated that it wasn't going to be a "drama like on Dr. Phil". I find that somewhat humorous because it was Melissa who made the latter into a drama. Acting evasive and defensive, and when Lindsay voiced concerns about Zac and Melissa not being open and honest with her, Melissa felt the need to shriek, "Because I'm her stepmom? Because I didn't give birth to her?" when Lindsay never said or implied anything like that. Melissa tends to play the victim and make everything about her. In her mind, she is the victim, not Karlie, IMO. While Dr. Phil appeared to have sided with Zac and Melissa by the end, I get the feeling that they received a lot of criticism for their appearance on that show because in the few interviews they've given since, not only do they appear much more subdued, but it seems like the interviews since have always been on their terms. That's why they don't go into detail about the circumstances surrounding Karlie's disappearance, i.e. what happened that night and morning, or any issues that might have been happening inside the home. Lindsay did try to be included in the People documentary but was essentially told to stay out of it.

Did her boyfriend say she was acting weird that night before she was taken home?

 

[Noirdame79]

Did her boyfriend say she was acting weird that night before she was taken home?

Yes, he said that while they were at their mutual friend's house (he insisted that it was not a party, just a small group of friends), Karlie became scared of the music, so they decided to head back to Donald's (the boyfriend) house, and their friend gave them a lift. He said that after they were dropped off, Karlie started acting scared of him and he tried to calm her down but she seemed frantic and ran away from him. It was supposedly after that, when she was running down the street, Dixon Lane, that she called Melissa to come pick her up. Karlie's friends did say that in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Karlie would at times become frightened (and she had not been smoking marijuana then), and expressed concern that someone was tracking her on her phone. Melissa made a point of mentioning in her first Facebook Live video that Karlie left her cell phone behind; she and Donald disagreed about where Karlie's phone was in the house the morning of her disappearance (Donald went over to the house later that morning). Donald said that Karlie's phone was on the table next to her bed, but later it ended up on the island in the kitchen; Melissa, however, insisted that Karlie's phone was on the island the whole time. Karlie's mother Lindsay later stated on social media that she is certain that Karlie's phone was tampered with and that she witnessed it happening. It's interesting that Melissa and Zac made a point of repeating that Karlie was afraid but didn't say what she was afraid of or what they thought she was afraid of. With Zac's drinking and the domestic violence "corporal injury to a spouse" arrest, it's possible that what Karlie was scared of was very close to home. IMO.

 

[Noirdame79]

Search warrants issued, data pulled from electronic devices in search for missing teen​

Sat, February 2nd 2019 at 6:17 PM

MONO COUNTY, Calif. (News 4 & Fox 11) — Karlie Guse's photo is taped to dozens of windows and light posts in the small town of Bishop, California. Her missing person posters are a visual reminder of the desperate search for the 16-year-old who vanished in mid-October.

Nearly four months later, the lack of physical and digital clues in her disappearance is baffling the community and investigators as they search for answers.

"Because we have no direction to go in, we're going in every direction," said Mono County Sheriff Ingrid Braun.

Sheriff Braun said they don't know if she was kidnapped, ran away or is hiding somewhere.


Karlie's stepmother discovered the teen was missing from their Chalfant home at around 6:15 or 6:30 a.m. on October 13, according to Sheriff Braun. Chalfant is about 12 miles north of Bishop and home to less than 700 people.

Karlie left her home without any of her personal belongings, including her phone.


Three witnesses say they saw her walking near her home the morning she disappeared. The first witness saw her on Ponderosa. The second spotted her on White Mountain Estates, west of Ponderosa. The third sighting was near Highway 6 and White Mountain Estates.

"We're pretty confident that she walked away from the house that morning because people saw her," said Braun. "We have three people who saw her."

But what happened to Karlie after that remains a mystery.

Sheriff's officials say she was reported missing the morning she disappeared and an exhaustive, multi-day search followed. Helicopters, search dogs, and off-road vehicles were called in.

Investigators combed through Karlie's social media accounts and electronic devices in search of clues. (Karlie had a Facebook page, but that has since been deleted).

"We have done search warrants. We have done data dumps of all electronic devices. We've interviewed everyone that's related to her," said Braun.

The Mono County Sheriff even called in the FBI to assist in the investigation.

In the days, weeks and months that followed, possible sightings were reported in California and Nevada. Sheriff Braun said they followed the leads, but they turned up nothing.

Sheriff's officials are also partnering with regional law enforcement agencies to follow up on tips that come in from the public.

Karlie's disappearance has garnered local and national attention. But public interest in the case is a doubled-edged sword.

The Mono County Sheriff said Karlie's family has been the victim of a so-called "trial by social media."

"There have been some very angry posts about members of the family accusing them of a crime," said Sheriff Braun. "At this point we don't have a crime, we have a missing person. And it had gotten really angry and really nasty towards the family and it wasn't fair to them."

The rumors and misinformation circulating on social media compelled Sheriff Braun to chime in on the conversation. In a Facebook post, she addressed what she calls "speculation" and "accusations."

"We are going to follow real clues. Not social theory. Not angry trolls throwing stuff out there. We are following the investigation."

Search warrants issued, data pulled from electronic devices in search for missing teen

Karlie Guse's photo is taped to dozens of windows and light posts in the small town of Bishop, California. Her missing person posters are a visual reminder of the desperate search for the 16-year-old who vanished in mid-October. Nearly four months later, the lack of physical and digital clues in...

mynews4.com

I find it interesting that Sheriff Braun refers to people who don't believe the Guses' version of events as "trolls" which is exactly how Melissa described people who doubt her version of events in her October 22, 2018 Facebook Live video, in which she gave what she claims to be "the real version" of what happened when Karlie disappeared (perhaps not so coincidentally, her Dateline NBC interview, in which she told a different version of what happened that night, aired that same day, but she didn't address that in the video). In the video, Melissa referred to the first witness having seen someone who he thought was Karlie at 6:30 am, and then Melissa felt the need to say, "But he's older" and then went on to say that Karlie was seen by three confirmed people after that, which is not true. There were only two other "witnesses" who supposedly saw Karlie or someone fitting her description - the other neighbor Kenneth Dutton and "the wooder" whose identity has never been publicly revealed. Of course, LE is going to claim that they're doing everything right, but by looking into this case it's obvious that they bungled it big time, which is likely another reason why they have also been evasive when revealing information. When you watch any interviews with the sheriff, as well as interviews with Melissa and Zac, it sounds like they are all reading from the same script at times which is suspicious enough in itself.

In the Nancy Grace interview, which was done on October 26/27 2018 (you can hear Melissa laugh a few times in it, which is very disconcerting), Melissa made a point of mentioning that they don't lock the house. I understand that they live in a small community, something of a rural area, but in my opinion, if you have children, especially in this day and age, there is no excuse for not locking your house at night. It also points to yet another hole in their story - they claimed to have had a paranoid (in their words), frightened teenager that night who repeatedly said that she didn't feel safe, yet they didn't lock the house. By stating that they don't lock the house and Melissa claiming that Karlie's bedroom door was open all night, they don't have to explain further why they didn't hear Karlie leave or why they don't know when she left. In my opinion, this is Melissa and Zac's alibi. I'm not entirely sure how big of a role Zac played in Karlie's disappearance; he claimed that he had a few beers that night, but given his history of alcoholism it's likely that he had more than a few. This could explain his changing stories of what happened that night, and why he leaves large gaps out, perhaps because he doesn't have a strong memory of what happened due to being intoxicated. I also think that the reason why Melissa and Zac (and the people on social media who believe them) point the finger and Karlie''s mother Lindsay and accuse her of lying, of being a bad parent, and criticizing the private investigators she hired, is because there is resentment that she doesn't believe their story, not to mention that pointing the finger elsewhere is a tactic to divert suspicion. No matter what people may think about Lindsay, it ultimately doesn't matter because Karlie lived with her father and stepmother, therefore Zac and Melissa were responsible for Karlie and her well-being.

As I mentioned, Karlie wasn't driving her car in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, which begs the question - was it because her car wasn't working properly, or was it taken away as punishment? Interesting thought to ponder.

When watching the Facebook videos, listening to the Nancy Grace interview, and reading about the Dateline NBC interview, it's alarming how often Melissa (especially) and Zac refer to Karlie as "gone" rather than "missing". By the time they appeared on Dr. Phil, about six months later, they did start to use missing a bit more, however, while claiming that they believe and hope that Karlie is alive, a clip was shown of Melissa putting up a flyer of Karlie on a pole in town and saying "This ribbon is for Karlie because teal was one of her favorite colors." Early on, Melissa began to refer to Karlie in the past tense. On Dateline, she said that Karlie "was a happy kid" and in one of the Facebook videos posted a few days after Karlie went missing, Melissa stated, "I forgot to tell you guys that her nose was pierced." In her first video, posted in the late afternoon after Karlie's disappearance, Melissa held up a photo of Karlie and said, "This was last year's picture" and then began speaking about Karlie in the present tense. This brings to mind Mark Redwine, who began to refer to his missing son Dylan in the past tense within hours of him going missing, when he said, "I loved that boy, I would have done anything for him", and then stated, "Dylan, you're in my prayers, and I love you very much." He also consistently referred to Dylan in the past tense in his Dr. Phil appearance, which is something many people picked up on. Mark said he came back to his house after running errands and that Dylan was "gone". I won't elaborate further but if you followed that case, you know what the outcome was.

The reason why the use of past tense is relevant and telling in the cases of missing people is that loved ones or friends of missing people would naturally hold out hope that the victim is alive as long as possible, and would not make references to death or dying because that goes against the instinctive and natural hope. It is often a considerable time later, sometimes years, if at all, that loved ones of a missing person may accept the possibility that that person is deceased. If someone close to a missing individual - a family member, friend, or the person who was the last to see the individual refers to them in the past tense early on, that is an indication that they know that the victim is dead.

For some reason, some people find it impossible to believe that parents, step-parents, or someone else close to a missing person could have been responsible for what happened to the victim and/or covered it up. Why is that? Statistically, we know that people are more likely to be harmed by someone they know than by strangers. While stranger abductions, assaults, and murders happen, the perpetrator is more likely to know the victim in some capacity. If you add domestic violence and substance abuse to the equation the likelihood is even greater. There are too many cases of missing women where the husband or boyfriend claims that she either walked away and didn't come back, or she was "gone" when he woke up or came home, or that she ran off with another man, and it often turns out (or it is strongly suspected) that he was responsible for her disappearance. The cases of Aundria Bowman/Alexis Badger, Gannon Stauch, Dylan Redwine, Alissa Turney, etc, are examples of how children are killed by their parents/stepparents, who then attempt to pass it off as an abduction or claim that the victim ran away and/or got lost. Sadly, I believe that this is what happened to Karlie.