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

[Topppps]

Just rewatched the segment again, witness said they saw Karlie at the party in Tonopah after she was reported missing. Sheriff Braun talked about how easy it would be to pacify someone there, they must think she was murdered.

 

[Catmommy]

Based on the information presented by the People Magazine Investigates program, my speculation is that Karlie was experiencing a psychotic break due to ...? She was afraid to stay at her boyfriend's and was literally running down the road away from his place. She was afraid of her stepmother and verbalized that on a recording made of her by the stepmother. Three different witnesses saw Karlie walking down the street with a piece of paper in her hand. She had changed clothes and was headed in the direction of the highway.

My theory is that the piece of paper was a hitchhiking sign so to speak. She appeared to feel unsafe and desperately wanted to get away, it seems to me. Someone in a vehicle helped her do that.

Was she murdered? Did she OD?

I doubt she is still alive. I would love to be wrong about that.

(All speculation, theories and opinions are mine only)

 

[Topppps]

Based on the information presented by the People Magazine Investigates program, my speculation is that Karlie was experiencing a psychotic break due to ...? She was afraid to stay at her boyfriend's and was literally running down the road away from his place. She was afraid of her stepmother and verbalized that on a recording made of her by the stepmother. Three different witnesses saw Karlie walking down the street with a piece of paper in her hand. She had changed clothes and was headed in the direction of the highway.

My theory is that the piece of paper was a hitchhiking sign so to speak. She appeared to feel unsafe and desperately wanted to get away, it seems to me. Someone in a vehicle helped her do that.

Was she murdered? Did she OD?

I doubt she is still alive. I would love to be wrong about that.

(All speculation, theories and opinions are mine only)

Yeah I think she was either murdered (similar to Brittanee Drexel) or she OD (similar to Paighton Houston)

 

[Seattle1]

What Happened to Karlie? Mystery Surrounds Teen's Disappearance into Desert After Night of Partying

Karlie Gusé's mysterious 2018 disappearance is the subject of Monday's episode of "People Magazine Investigates"

people.com

Aug 3, 2023

Karlie remains missing to this day, and the mystery of her disappearance is the subject of next Monday’s episode of People Magazine Investigates, titled “The Strange Disappearance of Karlie Gusé,” which airs on Investigation Discovery and streams on Max Monday, Aug. 7, at 9/8c. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

[..]

The night before Karlie vanished, Melissa made an audio recording of Karlie; she has said she wanted to make the recording to show Karlie the impact of drugs on her behavior. For the first time ever, on People Magazine Investigates, that recording will be played for the public.

 

[SAMS]

I have no idea what’s happening with my computer right now lol but I just wanted to say that I agree that I could’ve possibly been a hitchhiking sign, and I have never thought of that before!

 

[Topppps]

Based on the information presented by the People Magazine Investigates program, my speculation is that Karlie was experiencing a psychotic break due to ...? She was afraid to stay at her boyfriend's and was literally running down the road away from his place. She was afraid of her stepmother and verbalized that on a recording made of her by the stepmother. Three different witnesses saw Karlie walking down the street with a piece of paper in her hand. She had changed clothes and was headed in the direction of the highway.

My theory is that the piece of paper was a hitchhiking sign so to speak. She appeared to feel unsafe and desperately wanted to get away, it seems to me. Someone in a vehicle helped her do that.

Was she murdered? Did she OD?

I doubt she is still alive. I would love to be wrong about that.

(All speculation, theories and opinions are mine only)

My speculation is that the drugs wore off and she wanted to party more, she met a person she probably knew, from there they went to Tonopah, and partied, at that point, I think she either ended up like Brittanee Drexel, where the person that brought her there, hoped it would turn into something sexual and when it didnt he raped and killed her, or she ended up like Paighton Houston where she OD'd and they buried somewhere near the party house.

 

[Cirxe]

On the People Investigates segment they mentioned she was walking “toward the mailboxes” with the piece of paper. In her altered mind state could she have been trying to mail the paper to someone with a message? IMO I wondered why they stopped ground searches as seems like she easily could have just succumbed to the elements especially if not dressed properly.

 

[Seattle1]

Case of missing California teen leads to Nevada

Five years after teenager Karlie Gusé disappeared from alongside a highway in eastern California, authorities are searching for clues in Tonopah.

www.reviewjournal.com

10/8/23

In a recent episode of “People Magazine Investigates,” Jason Pelichowski, an investigator with the sheriff’s office in Mono County, California, said that in March 2021, his office received a call from a witness who claimed to have seen Karlie at a party in Tonopah.

Tonopah, a historic mining town and the county seat of sparsely populated Nye County, is about 100 miles away from Karlie’s home in Chalfant Valley.

Pelichowski did not disclose the witness’s name or say when the sighting of Karlie allegedly occurred.

But he did say that authorities located a vehicle that may have been used to pick up Karlie from alongside Highway 6 and transport her to Tonopah.

Mono County Sheriff Ingrid Braun confirmed this month that the Tonopah lead is one of the angles “actively being investigated” by her office and the FBI.

[..]

 

[NextSprint]

I watched a Youtube piece about this last night. A few thoughts/observations:

- Marijuana, when mixed with certain prescription meds can cause acute episodes of psychosis or mania. Those meds include antipsychotics and SSRIs
- Nothing has been said by the family - as far as I can see - as to whether Karlie was taking meds. If she had previously been in some kind of sobriety/recovery programme, she may well have been on one of the meds of either of those two classes
- If it was her first time taking marijuana again after being on e.g. Risperidone, Fluoxetine or Lithium, then she might have been at risk of this sort of interaction.

Then the supposed find of "women's underwear" in the brush near her home:

- The fact this is so rarely mentioned by anyone connected to the case makes me think it's a red herring
- I doubt the traces of remains found by Paul Dostie - as well as the underwear itself - was from Karlie
- BUT they came from SOMEONE (!!), which in itself is alarming.

Unfortunately, this disappearance is likely the kind of disappearance origin story behind many cases of young people who went missing and met an untimely end while on their misadventures. It's really sad. But IMO likely she was not harmed by her family, and she went off either in a compromised mental state or with a desire to escape, and 16 year olds in that situation don't have a lot of options and often do end up with the wrong people.

All JMO here. Sad case, and I hope closure is on the way for the family.

 

[katydid23]

Just watched the People Magazine episode on Karlie's disappearance. I think it was pretty well done.

The Tonopah lead sounds like it might be valid. The witness, who was not identified on the show, was described as a local, who used to do a lot of partying. They always felt guilty for not going to LE with the info about seeing her at a party and describing the car she was riding in. But once they became sober and stopped doing hard drugs, they went and reported it out of guilty feelings.

It seems like a valid story to me.

 

[Noirdame79]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but Karlie's father was arrested for domestic violence in February 2021 and according to Karlie's mother he entered into a long-term drug and alcohol treatment program.

 

[Noirdame79]

To clarify my previous post, Zachary Guse was arrested on February 11, 2021, for "corporal injury to a spouse" and was released after posting a $50,000 bond. There was a court hearing scheduled for May 10.

Karlie Gusé: Dad of missing California teen girl arrested for ‘corporal injury to a spouse’ [Police]

The father of a missing California girl was arrested earlier this month for domestic violence. According to online jail records, Zach

www.crimeonline.com

Karlie's mother Lindsay has stated that Zachary was violent during their marriage as well. He and Karlie's stepmother Melissa have had substance abuse issues themselves. While that doesn't necessarily mean that they were involved in Karlie's disappearance, it strongly indicates that Karlie and her siblings were not living in a stable environment.

 

[Noirdame79]

One of the things that strikes me as strange in this case is why it is the stepmother who has been front and center during this but Karlie's father, who is both her biological and custodial parent, has only ever given statements or interviews in the presence of his wife. He never appeared in any of the Facebook Live videos. While the stepmother said at one point that Karlie could have been abducted in her videos, as far as I know, there have never been any public pleas to any abductors to return her safely, which is something you would expect the parent of a missing child to do. It's also worth noting that the stepmother repeatedly said in her Facebook videos that she didn't want them shared anywhere else outside of the Facebook group she created to find Karlie, and these are the ones about Karlie's disappearance, what she was wearing, as well as addressing her followers about getting Karlie's face out there, etc. Why wouldn't you want that shared? This is information about your missing child/stepchild, wouldn't sharing this information help spread the word and possibly increase the chances of finding her? That doesn't make sense. Make of that what you will.

It's impossible not to notice how evasive the father and stepmother were both on Dr. Phil and in the phone interview with Nancy Grace when they had no reason to be. (In the Nancy Grace interview, there were times when the stepmother tried to answer for him and there were long pauses in both of their responses). You would think that the father and stepmother would want to be a team with Karlies's mother and have a united front, but that is not happening. It's also strange how they refused to give Dr. Phil more information, claiming it was for safety reasons, but I don't buy that, personally. You don't want to spread information about your missing child's case? Why has the stepmother's story changed? Also, the stepmother is friends with the sheriff, supposedly.

This is just my speculation.

 

[Noirdame79]

I just watched the FBI series of videos on this case. Not only were the videos very short, but except for the neighbor who was interviewed (and I'll get into that bit later), none of them got into the circumstances of Karlie's disappearance or what supposedly led up to it. This is the only time I've seen her father interviewed one one-on-one (that doesn't necessarily mean that his wife was not nearby or just off camera), and what stood out to me is how he was addressing abductors who may have taken Karlie, and the first thing he said was, "God be with you." He then added, "God forgive you." Pause. "Because I won't." "God be with you"? That doesn't sound like something you would say to someone who has kidnapped and possibly murdered your child. That sounds like something you would say about someone that you are concerned about. It seemed like he tried to amend it by saying "God forgive you, because I won't." He followed this with, "I don't know if that's the right thing to say or not." Also, no pleas to the possible abductor(s) to bring Karlie home or to come forward. I also saw another behavior from him that I remember seeing on Dr. Phil - he has the tendency, when talking about what might have happened to Karlie, to look up as if looking up to the heavens. (Approximately four months after these videos were posted, he was arrested for domestic violence aka corporal injury to a spouse).

Now, on to the neighbor. Many people who believe the stepmother's version of events will say that he and two other witnesses saw Karlie walking along the road that morning, but the neighbor specifically said that he saw a young girl walking, with a sheet of paper in her hand, etc, and when the stepmother asked him if he had seen Karlie, he told her what he saw, and she told him, "That's her" and he simply took her word for it. The other two witnesses, as far as I can tell, described seeing a female matching the description that the first neighbor gave, but I have yet to see anything where they definitively said it was Karlie (you can correct me if I'm wrong here). This new lead mentioned in the program last year could be promising, but it strikes me as odd, not only because this person doesn't want to be identified, but also because they seemed to have described her as willingly getting into a car. If she was as paranoid as her father and stepmother said she was (and they even said she seemed afraid of them and even said to her stepmother, "You're going to kill me") why would she get into a car with anyone if she was so afraid? Moreover, this witness said he saw Karlie in 2021, three years after she went missing. I think he is mistaken.

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but the story that she was high on weed or something else and was acting strange sounds suspiciously like victim-blaming. "Oh she was acting irrationally, so she probably just wandered off" (and conveniently left everything behind). Something's not adding up here.

 

[Noirdame79]

Just rewatched the segment again, witness said they saw Karlie at the party in Tonopah after she was reported missing. Sheriff Braun talked about how easy it would be to pacify someone there, they must think she was murdered.

He said he saw her at a party three years after she went missing. I find that hard to believe. We'll see what happens, but I think the witness is mistaken. It seems like LE is latching onto something unlikely, perhaps to divert suspicion from the father and stepmother JMO.

An amend to my previous post, one of the neighbors did say it was Karlie he saw, but the others didn't say it was her definitively. My personal belief is that she never left the house.

 

[BeginnerSleuther]

I watched a Youtube piece about this last night. A few thoughts/observations:

- Marijuana, when mixed with certain prescription meds can cause acute episodes of psychosis or mania. Those meds include antipsychotics and SSRIs
- Nothing has been said by the family - as far as I can see - as to whether Karlie was taking meds. If she had previously been in some kind of sobriety/recovery programme, she may well have been on one of the meds of either of those two classes
- If it was her first time taking marijuana again after being on e.g. Risperidone, Fluoxetine or Lithium, then she might have been at risk of this sort of interaction.

Then the supposed find of "women's underwear" in the brush near her home:

- The fact this is so rarely mentioned by anyone connected to the case makes me think it's a red herring
- I doubt the traces of remains found by Paul Dostie - as well as the underwear itself - was from Karlie
- BUT they came from SOMEONE (!!), which in itself is alarming.

Unfortunately, this disappearance is likely the kind of disappearance origin story behind many cases of young people who went missing and met an untimely end while on their misadventures. It's really sad. But IMO likely she was not harmed by her family, and she went off either in a compromised mental state or with a desire to escape, and 16 year olds in that situation don't have a lot of options and often do end up with the wrong people.

All JMO here. Sad case, and I hope closure is on the way for the family.

Marijuana, completely ALONE can cause psychosis in kids this age. It really has very little to nothing to do with the other drugs you mentioned. Marijuana may slow down metabolism of those drugs, but they're being used as a scapegoat to distract from the very real fact that marijuana in adolescents has been linked to psychosis.

 

[Noirdame79]

On October 11, 2019, nearly a year after Karlie's disappearance, there was a press conference. This was the only time where Karlie's father Zachary and stepmother Melissa, have ever made any pleas to Karlie or possible abductors. Interestingly, at one point, Melissa stated, "Karlie, I missed you!" Notice the past tense? Not "I miss you" or even "I've missed you". When Zachary spoke, he was looking down most of the time, as if he was reading from a script. He said "Karlie, we miss you please come home" etc, but in the next sentence, also directed at Karlie, most of the concern in his voice was gone. He said, "Karlie, if you were abducted, get away." Get away? Why was he acting as if Karlie had some responsibility or power in the situation? Sounds victim-blaming. Then, when addressing the abductors, he said, with the concern back in his voice, "If you have her, please let her go. Do the right thing", etc. Why did it take them a year to make any pleas? As I said, Karlie's stepmother never made any pleas in any of her Facebook videos, nor did she ever express any concern for Karlie's well-being.

By the time of the press conference, they had already appeared on Dr. Phil (March 2019) and they also did a podcast interview with Nancy Grace in October 2018, approximately a week after Karlie went missing. No pleas or appeals on any of those programs either. Melissa admitted to Dr. Phil that when Dateline covered the case in the weeks following Karlie's vanishing, she deliberately gave them misinformation. When asked why, both she and Zachary replied that it was too early in the investigation, and they were told not to give out information. Then why not just tell the producers of Dateline this, instead of giving misinformation? That's not going to help find your missing child! Melissa then claimed that she told Dateline after the fact (but she didn't say how long after) that the information she had given them was not true but she was told that it was too late as the episode was ready to air. It sounded like she was trying to shift blame. This press conference was also when the sheriff mentioned the three witnesses who supposedly saw Karlie that morning. The sheriff made a point of saying that those witnesses seemed to be credible, that they knew Karlie and had no reason to lie. The problem with this is that the first witness, Richard Eddy, stated that he didn't connect the person he saw with Karlie at 6:30 am until Melissa told him it was Karlie that he'd seen (interestingly, after the other witnesses came forward, Melissa has attempted to downplay Eddy's account, always describing him as "older" as if to cast doubt on his recollection). The second witness, Kenneth Dutton, a teacher who lived down the street (who also happens to be a friend of the stepmother) is the only one who claimed to have definitively seen Karlie that morning. This is the witness that Melissa has placed the most emphasis on. The third witness, whom Melissa calls "the wooder" (I'm guessing she meant logger, and Zachary even said that he has no idea who this person is) stated that he saw someone who looked like Karlie.

In her first Facebook video, which was at 4:30 pm, Melissa only referred to Karlie by name once and never mentioned that Karlie was her stepdaughter. She did not express concern for Karlie's well-being and did not ask for help to find Karlie, she merely asked people to help her, and she just asked people to share the video. Distancing language, subtle victim-blaming, etc. It's also telling that within days of Karlie going missing, she was expressing anger over people on social media questioning her account of what happened (which is not surprising considering how her story kept changing). She has kept a low profile since 2020, no doubt in part because she doesn't want to deal with people calling her out on all the inconsistencies. The thing is, an innocent parent of a missing child does not concern themselves with what people are saying about them. Finding their missing child is their top priority. Keep in mind that parents who are involved in their child's disappearance will often try to control the information given to the public and will even try to control the narrative and push their version of events. Melissa's connections to local law enforcement, Zachary's arrest for domestic violence, and his history of alcoholism can't be overlooked either.

I guess we're playing the wait-and-see game with this latest lead, but I think it's a long shot.

 

[Noirdame79]

A few more points:

- Karlie's best friend lived next door

- The street that Karlie was supposedly last seen walking down was the same route she took on weekdays to catch the school bus. This could explain why the cadaver dogs picked up Karlie's scent on the road but it just stopped at one point. The first witness, Richard Eddy, stated that the person he saw that morning was holding a piece of paper. Melissa told this to Karlie's mother Lindsay, who asked what that paper could have been. Melissa replied that Karlie was attending counseling sessions at school and that this paper might have been a paper for that which she (Karlie) was adamant about handing in. Lindsay responded unbelievingly, "On a Saturday morning?"

- According to Karlie's mother Lindsay, when Zac called her that morning, he told her Karlie was "gone" and even said, "At least you've got an alibi. You live in Nevada." When Lindsay tried to press him for more information, he became irritated and told her that his truck was "broken" and he had to go.

- In one of her Facebook Live videos in the days following Karlie's disappearance, Melissa claimed that she didn't take Karlie to the hospital because "she was high on marijuana, why would I?" During the Nancy Grace interview on October 27, 2018, Melissa and Karlie's father Zac said that they suspected that it might have been more than marijuana but they didn't know. It's interesting that when Grace asked Zac to describe what Karlie was doing to make him think that she was paranoid, but he couldn't give an answer, he ended up replying, "I don't know, she had been smoking marijuana. I don't know what was wrong with her." When they appeared on Dr. Phil in March 2019, not only was Zac able to describe what he meant by paranoid much better, but both he and Melissa stated that they could tell right away that it wasn't just marijuana that was causing her to act that way. Yet they still didn't take her to the hospital?

A timeline of the text messages that Karlie's stepmother sent to Karlie's boyfriend in the early morning hours of October 13, 2018 (remember that Melissa claimed that she noticed Karlie was missing at 7:15 am after the other two witnesses came forward, and she claimed that she and Zac immediately started searching, and then returned to the house at 9:30 and that was when they called Karlie's mother Lindsay and reported her missing).

Melissa posted the first Facebook Live video on October 13, 2018, at 4:03 pm where she announced that Karlie was missing. In it, she said, "I don't think she's out in the desert. I think she could have been abducted or taken. Because we do live by a highway, it happens, and I'm bein' real." A few seconds later she said, "You can't do an Amber Alert because she didn't leave in a car, and I don't have a physical description of a vehicle." If she didn't see Karlie leave, how would she know if Karlie didn't "leave" in a car? As noted earlier, she said that she and Zac began searching for Karlie after Melissa noticed she was missing at 7:15 am. The timeline of the last two witnesses places Karlie heading toward the highway and at the highway between 7:15 am and 7:30 am. Melissa drove her car, while Zac took his truck. Melissa even stated later, "How could I have missed her?" That's a good question, if either one of them drove down the road to the highway during that same period, how would they not have seen Karlie? Keep in mind, we know that Zac called Karlie's mom Lindsay at 9:30 am, and the first witness confirmed that Melissa did ask him that morning if he had seen Karlie, and his sighting of this person was at 6:30 am. This is why Melissa stated in the first Facebook Live and in this letter which I will post down below, that Karlie was last seen at 6:30, but she didn't say where she got that time from until the other witnesses came forward.

I apologize for it being a bit hard to read. Melissa posted this message to talk show host Sean Hannity (on his public Facebook page) at 9:13 pm on October 13, 2018, about five hours after she posted the first Facebook Live video. First of all, your stepdaughter has gone missing earlier that same day, and you've already called law enforcement, so why would you message a talk show host about it? Second, she states here that Karlie went for a walk and never returned, which is not what she said on the Live video, or what she has claimed since, that she woke up to find Karlie missing. Notice how the letter starts chatty and she introduces herself and mentions her husband (Karlie's father) before she even mentions that Karlie is missing and describes that as "some news". News? "We love our guns, land, rights, and freedom. But don't love our lawbreakers." Huh? Why would you even bring guns into the conversation and refer to lawbreakers as "our lawbreakers"? She doesn't come across as concerned but wants to create the impression that she is concerned, and this applies to her videos and interviews as well. Something is very wrong here.

 

[Herat]

We drive from the Tahoe region to Southern California several times a year and always wonder about Karlie when passing through Bishop, CA, which is the nearest "big " city to Chalfont.

One thing that finally dawned on me was that Highway 6, which bisects the town of Chalfant is a huge trucking route between Southern California and the central Great Basin or Rocky Mountain regions, serving Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, northern Nevada and regions beyond. Just south of Chalfont you often find the road lined on both sides by semitruck taking a break, sometimes 40 at a time. The route north follows into Nevada, through Tonopah to the east, or through central Nevada to the north.

If she walked anywhere near Highway 6 in an altered state of mind, it would not be difficult for her to be harassed or abducted by a trucker and moved rapidly away from the area.

 

[Noirdame79]

We drive from the Tahoe region to Southern California several times a year and always wonder about Karlie when passing through Bishop, CA, which is the nearest "big " city to Chalfont.

One thing that finally dawned on me was that Highway 6, which bisects the town of Chalfant is a huge trucking route between Southern California and the central Great Basin or Rocky Mountain regions, serving Utah, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, northern Nevada and regions beyond. Just south of Chalfont you often find the road lined on both sides by semitruck taking a break, sometimes 40 at a time. The route north follows into Nevada, through Tonopah to the east, or through central Nevada to the north.

If she walked anywhere near Highway 6 in an altered state of mind, it would not be difficult for her to be harassed or abducted by a trucker and moved rapidly away from the area.

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.