Charissa "Hazel Grace" Caster Part 2: Through the Cracks
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What we initially did whenever we all did connecting of the dots of, okay, she's missing. Who has she talked to? Who is normally in her Rolodex of people that she is in contact with? She's not the type to just go completely silent on everyone. She's also not the type to turn off her location. That was another thing is her location got turned off on her phone. That's not normal for her either.

I don't think anyone truly understands the amount of legwork that we all put in just to get her name and face fairly out there. I personally am not willing to stop anytime soon. I still make weekly and monthly posts, share it as much as possible with the last known information about her just in case someone might know anything.

In July 2024, Carissa Castor vanished without a trace. Her belongings were found alongside a roadway in Edmonds, Washington, which prompted law enforcement to contact her family. No one could find Carissa, so she was reported missing. Later, her car was found about 50 miles away in Sequim, Washington,

Carissa had also been spotted on video footage picking flowers in that area, but that was the last confirmed trace of her. As Carissa's loved ones began searching for her and comparing notes, they revisited the events leading up to Carissa's disappearance. She had recently ended a relationship with her boyfriend, sharing with multiple people that he had been abusive. She even sought medical attention at a local hospital, where a rape kit was performed. This revelation raised significant concerns.

especially with Carissa now missing. However, there were also indications that Carissa had been experiencing a mental health crisis, with her behavior becoming increasingly erratic in the days before she went missing. This left her loved ones grappling with whether she had been harmed or if her disappearance was related to her mental health struggles. The mystery surrounding Carissa's disappearance only continued to deepen, with few clues and no answers.

Was she the victim of violence? Or did her mental health lead her to vanish on her own? The uncertainty surrounding Carissa's fate has left more questions than answers. And her loved ones have been trying to piece together the fragments of her final days, in the hope of understanding what truly happened. I'm Marissa, and from Wondery, this is episode 479 of The Vanished, Carissa Castor's story, part two, Through the Cracks.

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The timeline of Chris's case is unclear, with significant gaps in time where it's unknown where she was or who she may have been with. What we do know is that she left Ash's house on July 9th. It wasn't until July 27th that her belongings were discovered in Edmonds, which prompted police to contact her family in Kansas City. This was also when she was officially reported missing. Then, on July 31st, her car was found in Squim,

shifting search efforts roughly 50 miles northwest of Edmonds. After the car was discovered, a body cam video from an officer surfaced, showing Carissa picking flowers. This footage was from July 23rd, several days before police showed up on Rachel's doorstep in Kansas City to inform her that Carissa's belongings had been found. It's still unclear when her things were discarded in Edmonds or how long they had been there before authorities were notified.

Was it before or after the body cam footage was taken? That question remains unanswered. We'll dive deeper into this later, but eyewitnesses confirmed that Carissa's car had been at its location for about a week before law enforcement connected it to the missing persons case. If that's accurate, it means the car had been there around the same time that Carissa was seen picking flowers. Upon learning that Carissa was missing...

Her friend Tristan took it upon himself to visit the area, with the goal of distributing flyers and looking for Carissa. Tristan assumed that law enforcement would have already searched Carissa's vehicle and towed it, but when he arrived, Tristan was surprised to find it still there. Tristan shared more details with us about the car and its contents.

I thought the first thing the police would do was go through the car and look for evidence, but it doesn't seem that's what happened at all. And people could have been stealing stuff out of her car too because it was just unlocked and I didn't know if I should lock it because maybe she would be locked out of her car if she came back. I had no idea what to do and I just thought the police would have tried harder to find any clues or evidence, but I guess they didn't. We spent all weekend out there looking and

I didn't know if I was supposed to not contaminate any evidence or something, but it seemed like her car's just there and locked. It seemed like they weren't even trying. So the next day we decided, let's see if we can find some clues in her car. And we started the car. We noticed it had no gas. And looking through some things, there was a little notebook, and I could tell what was her handwriting and what was his. Weird, weird stuff.

all these numbers and she was writing the same phrase over and over again, kind of like brainwashing stuff. It was really weird. And she had these drawings, really dark drawings, depressing and talking about being hurt by men. And then we did find one piece of paper that had a schedule talking about places to go, different national parks. And then even Minnesota was on there, dates and

times, but none of it made sense. How is she going to get to any of these places without her car? As far as we knew, she didn't have money. There could have been more clues in there. I wanted to respect her privacy, but I also wanted to see if she had left any more clues. They told it. In the days leading up to her disappearance, Carissa's behavior became increasingly erratic, with many of her loved ones describing her as appearing manic. She seemed to change completely from one call to the next.

and was engaging in strange, unpredictable actions. Carissa's friend Ash explained that this made it even harder to determine what to do next, as it appeared that Carissa wasn't acting with the rationality she typically displayed when on her medication. Trying to piece together the clues from a logical perspective proved to be difficult, and it often felt necessary to rethink the situation from a different angle, but the possibilities seemed endless.

In the time that she left my house versus whenever she went missing, it's very hard to piece together the information because what she was telling people was all over the place. And I think part of it was because she was trying to make sure that she was able to have her privacy. She got really, really secretive whenever it came to anything going on with her post leaving Henry's.

One key detail Carissa's loved ones discovered was that she had met a new acquaintance shortly before her disappearance, a younger woman named Jaden. According to Angie, the two bonded over their shared experiences with abusive relationships and even went camping together.

She met this girl named Jaden camping that was supposedly supposed to be running from some boyfriend or some relationship. She was younger than Carissa, but I had even said, that's not safe to sleep outside right next to somebody you don't know, whether she's younger than you or not. You don't just fall asleep next to people you don't know. So I fear with her not being in the right mind, was she just trusting somebody and got into a car accident?

Carissa had also mentioned Jaden to Ash, but only provided a few details, leaving Ash with little to go on in trying to piece everything together. However, it was later revealed that there had been some sort of confrontation between Carissa and Jaden's ex-partner, adding even more questions to an already puzzling situation.

Another one of Carissa's best friends, Tristan, that's who she told me she was going to stay with. And then I later found out that was not the case. And she was telling me that she was staying with him and then telling him that she was going camping. And then she ended up meeting some girl while she was camping, which the cops got a hold of. She lives in Tacoma. Her name's Jayden.

This is just from what we have pieced together from both the police and what Carissa had told us. I guess Jaden had also just left a domestic violence situation. And then Carissa went with Jaden to the house to go confront the ex-boyfriend or something and then ended up getting kicked out.

Since Tristan lives in Washington, he's been able to contribute to the hands-on efforts that those living out of state cannot. After discovering Carissa had befriended someone named Jaden shortly before she went missing and spent time camping with her, Tristan hoped Jaden might have crucial information about things Carissa had said or done during their time together.

A friend was able to realize that every picture that she sent had a geolocation. So that's how we were able to get the address of the girl that she was staying in right before she left. This girl, Jaden. We got her address and I went over there and tried knocking on the door to see if she could tell us anything because anything that Carissa might have told her, I thought. Maybe she told Jaden because she had just met her and doesn't know any of us and maybe...

told Jayden something she wouldn't have told us, but she didn't get back to me. I left her my phone number and a note in her mailbox. I never heard anything. She's apparently talked to the police, but they didn't tell us anything she said, so that's frustrating. Before we found Jayden, I did a deep dive. We found members of her family's Facebook, and I was even messaging them, please get in contact with Jayden. We were very worried about our friend. I

I think that's just very weird. And Jaden, I guess that weekend before she went missing, she went to Jaden's friend's house. And Carissa had been telling me about Jaden being very troubled and having problems with guys, being a beast of guys. And Carissa wanted to help her and was like, I want to save her. And she's always trying to help people. But I guess she went to this party. There was a bonfire. Jaden's guy friends were there that...

had abused her or something and Carissa approached them and like confronted them about it and I guess she got kicked out of the house or the party or whatever it was and I thought that was weird too because that happened right before she left maybe they had a fight over that who are these guys and

How many? And did they follow her? Did they get mad at her for confronting them? If they really had been abusive, they might be upset at that. Some strangers confronting them to their face in front of maybe other people.

The silence from Jaden has left those searching for Carissa perplexed. To her credit, law enforcement said that Jaden did speak with them. However, Carissa's friends are puzzled by her decision not to communicate with them. She may hold a crucial piece of information, one that she may not even realize is important, but perhaps she simply doesn't want to get involved, something we see often in the cases we cover on the show. Let's look at one of the cases.

Last week, Tristan revealed that Carissa had talked about plans to meet up with Henry, but it's unclear whether that meeting ever took place. Ash also mentioned that Carissa had told her the same thing, which has left Ash feeling deeply concerned that Carissa may have decided to meet with him before she vanished.

I knew that at one point she was supposed to meet up with Henry for money, but she told me because he had taken the last of her money and was withholding it from her. And his mom paid her off. She said that she was going to give her $5,000 and then ended up giving her only $2,000.

And this isn't the first time that she's done this either. One of his other exes who went through a very similar experience with him reached out in the midst of all of this. And it was very similar mode of operation within the relationship dynamic. And before she left my house, I know that Henry had been reaching out to her to

to meet up with her to bring her money, wanting to take her to church, do all this weird, what he calls spiritual stuff with her and kept messaging her and emailing her. It was just very much trying to rope her back into the relationship.

Henry has become a focus of concern among Carissa's loved ones, as she had confided in many of them about allegations of abuse. She even took the brave step of going to the hospital to have a rape kit done. Ash described the process as a heartbreaking 13-hour ordeal, and seeing her friend in that state has been difficult for her to process. What stands out to Angie, however, is that with Carissa now missing, the investigation into the abuse and rape allegations has stalled.

Carissa isn't here to testify. Could this be a potential motive for someone to make Carissa disappear?

Her uncle had tried to talk Carissa into the things that he is doing to you is not okay. You need to file this and you need to file that. And he finally talked her into going to an ER and pressing charges and getting a rape kit done. Carissa's not here to say her word. It's her word against his. And now with her being missing, yes, there's a rape kit done. And she said, this is who did it to me. And

And then Carissa goes missing. From what I know, nobody was able to follow up with Carissa because Carissa's missing. But she had said, I had been so depressed and I had been so upset. She said, please don't hold it against me. I haven't showered in. I haven't brushed my teeth in days. And she said, I remember the nurse saying, thank you, Jesus, that you didn't do that because now we have evidence on him. With the pictures that she sent me and...

willingly going to the hospital to get a rape kit and filing charges. That's kind of hard to say that things didn't happen, that shouldn't happen.

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After reflecting on all the facts they've uncovered, one thing that stood out to Rachel as completely out of character for her daughter was that Carissa left her dog with Henry at his home.

They got a dog together, a little poodle mix. He was just the sweetest little guy. That was like her child. The dog was everywhere with her. She just loved him so much. His name's Nico. And the fact that she left Nico behind was really shocking to her siblings and I as well.

Tristan provided some insight into why Carissa may have left her dog at Henry's. In a conversation just days before her disappearance, Carissa revealed a frightening altercation in which her dog had gotten caught in the middle.

She was pretty upset. She told me that he was abusive, was controlling her. She tried to leave him several times, and she showed me the side of her car. It was kind of smashed in at the gas tank area. And I guess she had tried to leave, and he was hitting the car. I don't know with what, but I did see the damage, and her car smelled like...

gas had spilled in it all over, a really strong smell. She said she had run out of gas because he wasn't giving her any money. And I guess even at one point when she did try to leave, he was holding, they had a dog together and he was holding the dog and putting the dog behind the car and under the car and saying, if you leave, you're going to kill the dog. She even told me that he basically kept her hostage for

for like a week straight. She was in a portion of his property. He was making her live back there. She was, thank God, able to finally escape and had to go to the hospital and record all the injuries she sustained.

Given Carissa's allegations of abuse against Henry, her loved ones have expressed concerns about his potential involvement in her disappearance. Could the two have met up after she was last seen? Rachel mentioned that Henry reached out to Carissa's sister on social media, and the messages were unsettling.

He does not appear well either. He started immediately sending messages through Facebook to my youngest daughter saying, Carissa is full of demons and that we need to take her to a church and have an exorcism on her. And it was hundreds and hundreds of all these messages. And so my daughter...

She sent him a message in the kindest way possible that we're hoping to get her some help through a hospital in a nice way saying we're not going to entertain this nonsense. The detectives have gone out to talk to him. It's so hard to tell that until we find Carissa, we don't know what's real and what isn't. But if we ever find her and we find out that there was abuse, then we are going to be charging him. Until that point, we can't because we don't know anything.

exactly what happened. Henry actually, I think, did some TikTok about how she had demons. I didn't even look at it because I know it would have upset me too much.

In the aftermath of Carissa's disappearance, her loved ones took to social media to raise awareness, hoping to generate leads from anyone who may have seen her. At the same time, Henry also took to social media, posting videos about Carissa. The content of these videos disturbed Carissa's friends and family. Tristan watched several of Henry's videos and found them deeply unsettling, only raising more questions about his potential involvement.

He was jumping on the fact that she's possibly kidnapped. He kept saying, whoever out there has her, we will not stop and weird stuff like that. It was really early on. I don't think any of us were thinking she's kidnapped. The TikToks were ridiculous. He's got mental illness of his own, which seems not being treated either.

It sounds like they haven't investigated him at all. I know they went to his house one time and talked to him. If he tried to make her not leave that hard, hitting the car and denting the car up, and

and putting the dog under the car, that's definitely a red flag. Very concerning that he wouldn't try to chase her down. He could have put an air tag in her car and tracked her all the way out there. I don't see why that's not a possibility if he had his own car and he wasn't trying to look for her at all other than posting these weird TikToks. He didn't try looking at all. This doesn't make any sense. We got out there as soon as we could. I mean, we spent all weekend out there looking.

Ash was so angered by some of the things Henry said in his videos that she felt compelled to confront him. As they were out searching for Carissa, Ash believed that Henry was exploiting her friend's disappearance to create a spectacle and gain a social media following.

Henry kept messaging all of us within her support system to get information out of us, where she was, what was going on with the investigation. I ended up talking to him and tried to keep my cool as much as possible, but he admitted to, and I quote, performing exorcisms on her and weaning her off for her medication, then publicly has told people that that was her choice. I

I absolutely confronted him because he kept trying to contact myself and everyone else in her support system. He then tried to get on TikTok and tried to start building a following because of what was going on with Carissa and wasn't honest about what was going on and why Carissa was led to the breaking point that she was. I ended up publicly confronting him because he kept trying to engage with me. I tried my hardest to ignore him.

All of us had also asked him to take down the TikToks that he made about her because he made it sound like she was possessed by a demon instead of he was abusive. He

He has to force tears. He also goes on a tirade about how she's been kidnapped and then kept addressing me as if I knew where she was. And I'm like, I don't know where she is, which is why I'm looking for her. Most of the TikToks he put out about her were him talking about himself. And then there would be a flash of Carissa's picture.

It wouldn't be information about the case. It wouldn't be where she was last seen. It wouldn't be, hey, these are the things that she's gone through. These are the things she's interested in. It was very centered on his experience and what he needed from it. And then he was trying to come up with some tagline at the end of all of his TikToks to try to grow a following on TikTok.

Carissa's loved ones have felt conflicted about communicating with Henry. Some have found it too upsetting and blocked him, while others have tried to keep an open line of communication. Angie worries that if she cuts him off completely and Carissa decides to reach out to him, they'll have no way of knowing.

So he contacted me, but I don't respond. Basically, everybody has blocked him. Not that I don't want to block him, but I don't want to block him in the case that for some reason Carissa reaches out to him. And then he doesn't have any contact of her friends because now everybody has blocked him. So he tries to open conversation with me. I hired these seers, kind of like a psychic agent.

If you could respond to them and let them know Carissa and your relationship with her and how close you are, that would be great. Maybe they'll get on it. And then he responded, hey, the seer said she's okay. She's in a safe-ish area. But now that they know that there is a possible domestic violence against me, they won't talk to me anymore. So will you please reach out to them and tell them that I didn't do anything?

tough chance there, buddy. And then I just replied and I put seen. Angie recalls the period after Carissa and Henry's breakup when he decided to reach out to her directly, seemingly trying to discredit Carissa's claims about him. In light of Carissa's disappearance, this behavior feels even more strange and unsettling, especially considering the timing of her disappearance being so soon after she made allegations against him. After they broke up, we were texting a

Prior to this, Henry had never, ever text me. And I text her WTF. Why is Henry texting me? Out of the blue, he had put, Carissa and I had broke up. You know she's manic. And please reach out to me before you ever talk to her because she is saying this. And she is saying that. And I thought that was so weird because why would I back you before I back Carissa?

I will 100% always back Carissa. I've met you one time. I've known Carissa for years and Carissa's telling me what you did to her. Why would I back you? She text him. She screenshotted it and send it back to me. Wow, that is a low blow. Really? My best friend, you're going to reach out to Angie and ask her not to contact me?

During the short time Carissa stayed with Ash before her disappearance, Ash carefully documented everything Carissa shared about the abuse allegations. She's grateful now that she took the time to write it all down. Today, she reviews the notes, hoping to find something that could break this case wide open.

From what Carissa told me, he has a library at home, and it's all about how to become a cult leader and cults and religious, spiritual cults. And she was telling me that Charles Manson was one of his idols. There was a lot of stuff that she kept hidden. I know for me, I don't know how much she had told her mom and stuff, but whenever she got to my house, we spent a day or two kind of unpacking everything, talking about what she had gone through and me taking notes of things that had been done to her and

Whenever she first met him, everything was perfect. Everything he said was right. Everything he did was right. He was sweet. He was kind. He worshipped the ground she walked on. And then slowly but surely...

He tried introducing polyamory to their relationship. Carissa's extremely monogamous. He would make comments about her body. He would starve her. He would control every single thing she did, blew through her savings. He doesn't work either. And this isn't the first girl that he's done this to. From what Carissa said, I think Carissa was the sixth. And by the time he's done with them, they're usually mentally retarded.

not there anymore. So no one believes what they have to say. Whenever she got to my house, I can't stress, she was in the worst state I think I've ever seen her in. Her words to me was she wanted to go to the cops whenever she was ready because he had done this to several other women and she didn't want it to continue.

Angie believes Henry should be thoroughly investigated in order to rule out any potential involvement in Carissa's disappearance. Given the events leading up to and following Carissa going missing, she feels he shouldn't be overlooked. And Angie doesn't believe that a full investigation has been conducted.

He's been investigated. From what I understand, he's got a side apartment that's attached to his mom's house and the entire property has been thoroughly checked. He's been questioned. That doesn't mean that he didn't meet up with her somewhere and do something with her and just not bring her back to the house. But from what I understand, he's been investigated and the property has been looked through. We

We don't have any evidence. I mean, everything's snowballing and then abuse with him and then her camping in the car. And then she goes missing. Really, the last person that we know had anything to do with her was Henry. I think that's in the back of everybody's head. And that's one of the main reasons that I don't reach out to him because we do blame him.

Ashes also worried that law enforcement doesn't seem to be doing enough to find Carissa. She explained that while they initially communicated well with her family and friends, the communication has since tapered off, and now it seems as though little is being done to actively search for Carissa.

When I tell you they have done absolutely nothing to try to find her, we made the phone calls. I went out to swim. It was me and another friend. And we were on foot and went to the area in which her car was along with around town and left flyers. And Tristan went out too because Tristan knows more about the hiking and camping spot. So Tristan went out there and was camping and then hiking and also looking for her. We

We met the tribal police before their actual PD showed up. The detective, I can tell you without a doubt, he hasn't remained in contact with any of us. Most of us have heard absolute silence. They literally went out, walked around the area, walked into the area, maybe 20, 30 feet. The search was over. It was kind of like a, well, we looked around. She's not here. Sorry. We

We did more legwork trying to go out there and search for her than the cops did. There's been no warrant for her phone, no pinging of her location. When I tell you they did the absolute bare minimum looking for her, I'm not kidding. I had put out multiple posts via social media. A lot of people were sharing TikTok, Instagram, Facebook posts about her. And we got a couple of tips from people that had seen her in Flint.

When the cops didn't go out and look for her. Well, if it's not reported to us by the person who sees her. Okay, but these people are calling you. So I'm confused as to why no one is looking for her. The detective on her case, he just stopped responding after a while. No updates, nothing.

We couldn't even really get her on local news to try to help with the search because none of the PDs would release her police report. Apparently, this was a pattern. That was my frustration with this entire situation is because she is mentally ill. They're like totally discounting the fact that she's a fucking person. Even with Henry, they didn't even really question him.

She literally just left an abusive relationship. The boyfriend, usually in situations whenever a woman goes missing after a domestic violence abusive relationship, typically it is the boyfriend.

We reached out to both the Edmonds Police Department and the Clowham County Sheriff's Office to request records and an interview. As a brief reminder, the Edmonds Police Department was the agency that found Carissa's belongings and initially opened the missing persons case. The Clowham County Sheriff's Office became involved once her car was located in Squimn,

The Edmonds Police Department informed us that their records are categorically exempt from disclosure until the case is referred to a prosecutor for a charging decision, as they're part of an ongoing criminal investigation. However, the Clough County Sheriff's Office did release records to us. The report states, On July 31, 2024, I was dispatched to a suspicious vehicle at 2657 River Road, Sequim.

The reporting party advised that the car had been there for several days and was associated with a missing person. Upon arrival, I located the car parked at a county pullout. I took pictures of the car and the surrounding area. I contacted an environmentalist group working in the area, who stated they had been working there for the last two weeks.

They confirmed the car had only been there for about a week, and they had not seen the driver during that time. They also hadn't observed anything unusual in the area. Another passerby who walks the trail daily said he first noticed the car on the 27th at 10 or 10.30 a.m. He didn't see the driver, but the car had remained there since. When Sergeant Keegan arrived, the car was open and

and due to the circumstances, we entered the vehicle. Photographs were taken of the interior, and we searched for any evidence that could provide a lead on Carissa's whereabouts. At the time, no evidence was found to indicate where Carissa might have gone.

When we contacted the Edmonds Police Department to ask for an interview about their search efforts, they responded by saying, Our officers and detectives initially took and investigated this case under the belief that the missing person was last seen in Edmonds. The investigation determined she was actually seen multiple times on the Washington Peninsula, near Jefferson and Clowham counties. Any suspicious concerns related to Edmonds were resolved.

Even though the person was last seen in another jurisdiction, our detective has kept in contact with some family members to check for updates or any contact from her. This response confused us, as Carissa's loved ones had believed that the Edmonds Police Department was taking the lead in the search for Carissa. However, they stated they're only staying in touch with a few family members to monitor any updates. We responded to their email, asking whether another jurisdiction had taken over the case, but received no reply.

We also reached out to the Clough County Sheriff's Office, hoping they had taken on Carissa's case. They responded, I have forwarded your request to our Chief of Operations, who will be contacting our Search and Rescue Coordinator to reach out to you regarding our search efforts. We are not the primary jurisdiction investigating her disappearance, but are assisting since her vehicle was found in Clough County.

Unfortunately, we never heard from their search and rescue coordinator. The back and forth with law enforcement, with no agency clearly taking ownership of Carissa's case, has been frustrating for us, and even more so for her loved ones, who are gravely concerned for Carissa's safety and well-being. It's left them wondering whether any law enforcement agency is actively searching for Carissa, or if her case has fallen through the cracks.

At the start of this episode, we covered the known timeline of events. Carissa left ashes on July 9th. We know that her family was contacted by law enforcement on July 27th, after her belongings were found discarded in Edmonds. Her car was discovered on July 31st. The police report provided us with a couple of eyewitness accounts. One came from that environmentalist group working in the area, who placed the car at its location around July 24th, give or take.

Another eyewitness, who said they walk in the area daily, recalled noticing it on the 27th. Eyewitness accounts can often be unreliable, as memories are difficult to pinpoint without a significant event to anchor them. So it's still unclear exactly when Carissa's car turned up there. However, what makes this particularly significant is that the last confirmed sighting of Carissa was on body cam footage from July 23rd.

when an officer approached her while she was picking flowers. If Carissa was the one who discarded her belongings, could she have done so on or before July 23rd, with the items not being discovered until later? Did she then head to Squim, leave her car, and something happened after she was seen on the footage? Or could someone else have harmed Carissa and disposed of her things afterward? For Carissa's loved ones, these questions continue to pile up, with no answers to fill in the blanks.

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After Carissa vanished, Angie learned from Henry that Carissa had been repeatedly mentioning the month of September. At first, Angie clung on to the hope that Carissa was simply taking a break and would resurface in September. But when September came and went with no word from her friend, that hope began to fade. Still, Angie holds on to a glimmer of hope that Carissa will return. Though with each passing day, it becomes harder to imagine how she could still be alive and well without being spotted.

I remember him saying, this was August maybe, he kept saying, she told me we can try again in September. She just needed a break. Per him, she never told me that. It was always September. There was multiple texts. She wants to try to go back to school in September when she goes to school and tries to get her life back together in September. So I don't know what the significance to him of September was, but nothing came around in September.

In my head, maybe she needs to go away for a little bit. And then when she comes back and contacts him, but she never did. When she went missing, I said, I fear that she's manic. And without any help or intervention, she is not going to show her face until February. Because people that are manic typically take six months to kind of open up.

Oh, crap. I don't know anybody that I used to know. I don't want to say snap out of it, but what am I doing to myself and what am I doing to my friends and my family? They kind of start coming back around slowly. I said I feel she won't show her face until February. But with it being colder, she's got to have some kind of a contact. She can't just be out in the cold for months and months.

I hope and pray she shows up. And I was hoping, obviously, way before now, maybe by the holidays. It's always maybe, maybe before her birthday, but still no show. There's been no trace of Carissa since she was seen on video picking flowers. As Carissa's bills began arriving in Rachel's mailbox, she held on to the hope that those bills may show some activity after Carissa went missing in July 2024. But still, there was nothing.

All of her bills were sent to our house because she was a travel nurse. Bank accounts, credit cards, there's been nothing since the end of July. My brother, her uncle tried to help her as well and he actually sent her quite a bit of money if she's been able to live. I think that's because he sent her a lot of money. But

Another thing that I did, her travel nurse agency, I talked to them because she was supposed to start a job with them and they had tried to contact her. So they looked at her Facebook and they saw that she was missing. So they reported it to the State Board of Washington in case she tried to get a job as a nurse so that they would know...

she has her license in Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, California. So if she were to try to work as a nurse, they would know, hey, she's a missing person. Let's just make sure she's okay. I asked the officers who they said she could possibly get a job and they wouldn't know she's a missing person. The possibilities, honestly, when you start to focus on that, the possibilities are endless of what could have happened. You

You just don't know. Angie hasn't given up faith and continues to reach out to Carissa, holding onto the belief that she might eventually read her messages and get in touch. When she was still camping, we would still stay in contact with texts and whatever. And even after she went missing, I

I sent her a text every single day saying, no judgment. I'm here for you. Please contact somebody. We all love you. Every single day. And then there was one day I got a message back of under-leverable. I'm sorry, what? I was just able to send one yesterday and I had reached out to our support group. Hey, does anybody else send Carissa messages? I

I literally send her a message every single day and now I'm blocked.

I don't know if, did she block me? Oh, this is somebody I knew from before and screw you. I don't want to hear from you anymore. Does somebody else have her phone? I don't know what happened. But ever since I got blocked, every single day I send her an email. Does she see it? I don't know. Please get a hold of somebody. I will never judge you. You know I'm here. I love you. Please come back. You have no idea the support that you have. Everybody just wants you safe. I don't want her to one day come around

Everybody hates me for what I did, and now I can't reach anybody. I'm so embarrassed. I will never judge her for what she did or what happened to her. Tristan has also continued trying to reach Carissa by phone. When we spoke with Tristan in February, he shared the heartbreaking realization that someone else now has Carissa's phone number.

When we tried calling her right away, it went straight to voicemail. And then I was texting her all this time, and it would say, message undeliverable. And then I tried recently, and the text went through. So I kind of was wondering if she turned her phone back on. But now we have all realized that somebody else has her phone number now, which I was really upset by that. I guess I accidentally must have butt dialed, and this person left me a message saying, please stop calling me.

That made it real to me. I guess I didn't believe it at first. I thought maybe someone else has her phone and is just saying that. Earlier, Tristan mentioned that when he went out to the area to search for Carissa, her car had remained where it had been abandoned.

Eventually, law enforcement towed the vehicle. When someone goes missing and their vehicle isn't kept as evidence indefinitely, it's eventually released. If there's a loan on the car that goes unpaid due to the person's disappearance, the finance company will repossess it. That's what happened to Carissa's vehicle. Tristan described it as a sobering moment when Carissa's car unexpectedly showed up at his workplace to be auctioned off.

I work at a car auction place and one day at work I look up and I see her car and it was pretty traumatizing. It was pretty much empty, just some trash and some rocks. She liked rocks and crystals and stuff. Just seeing her car at work was pretty upsetting.

After Carissa went missing, her loved ones turned to social media to spread the word. Tristan said they faced roadblock after roadblock. For some reason, many people dismissed the situation as a scam, with some commenters suggesting that Carissa could disappear if she wanted to. For Tristan, this response was deeply troubling. He remains convinced that Carissa wouldn't have disappeared on her own and is likely in need of help.

I think we should get it out as much as possible. We tried to post on all the different Facebook groups and people were commenting that it was a scam. I don't know why anyone would think it was a scam. And some of the groups' admin wouldn't let me post it. It was really frustrating. And people making comments on her poster saying, I saw this saying this somewhere else, so it must not be true. Maybe this is a scam.

just cast doubt on people even taking it serious one aspect of people's comments saying the domestic violence aspect oh she's just trying to get away from him she's just trying to start a new life she deserves to start over if she wants she's an adult she can cut people out if she wants to but it just doesn't seem like something that she would want to do to abandon her friends and family and

She is in a very fragile state with her mental health, so it's not just, I think, she wanted to start over. It's all very confusing. You start to think, maybe she's doing this, but then none of the facts add up. Holes in every theory I could think of. She wasn't ready to go back to work or make any major changes. She was recovering. Even her health.

Her health wasn't doing well because she didn't have any energy and told me she needed to work on her health before because her whole plan was to return to nursing either September or October and go back to work, but she needed to rebuild her strength. She was having a hard time eating because of the trauma and the stress and everything of what she had been through. So I

I don't think she was super calculated in this whole plan to start a new life somewhere else. That would have taken a lot of forethought and effort, and I think it was not something she was able to do in the way that she was.

There's been some speculation that Carissa could be living amongst the homeless community in the area where her car was abandoned, or anywhere, really. Rachel struggles with the idea that her daughter could be out there going unnoticed for all of this time. Carissa was the type of person who walked into a room and commanded everyone's attention.

The population is very small and it's mostly just wilderness. And the officer told me because I said, people are saying they've seen her. And he said, this is such a small town. If we came across her, I can guarantee we would know. It's baffling. The sheriff's deputies and the officers that I've spoken to in the area said they have a lot of

of homeless, and they also use the term maybe people with alternative lifestyles who choose to live in the wilderness or live really simply, they have a lot of people like that in that area. And so they said it would be very easy for someone to kind of get lost in those areas. And they have homeless camps. They did look in those areas. And they've shown people her pictures. Businesses have put her picture up. And there's been reportings that

And we've asked people, can you take a picture and send it to us so we can see if it is her? Just because officers have gone out wasn't her. There's someone who kind of looks like her. I told all the officers, there's no way you could miss her. She just has so much energy. She just is who she is. And she's so unapologetic. She would wear hiking boots and dresses everywhere. If someone saw her naked,

She would just present, first of all, unwell. I don't know how she survived this long. It just baffles me because she's never been homeless and she's never had to live that lifestyle. I mean, she did do a lot of camping, but also they had a lot of comfort.

Angie considers this possibility, too, and also realizes that everyone may be looking for Carissa Castor, when she could be going by Hazel Grace, and potentially she could have even changed her appearance. Angie has reached out to local shelters and food kitchens, hoping to raise awareness about Carissa's disappearance within those communities, too.

I had reached out to basically a food kitchen there. From my understanding, it's pretty close to where her car was found. To go to a food kitchen or a pantry, they don't ask for ID. So I reached out saying she's missing. She has mental health problems. She's manic. Just so if they spotted her, they could call the police.

Being manic, I don't think she's going to walk into a police department and say, my actual name is Carissa Castor and I need help. Now she's no longer Carissa. She's going by Hazel Grace. Everybody that knows her now did not know her as Carissa. She had very long brown hair. She probably cut her hair. I don't know.

I just hope she didn't change her appearance so much that people are like, that couldn't possibly be her. And with that free bus line next to her, is she even in Washington anymore? I don't know. And with her being a travel nurse, she's got contacts everywhere. I just pray she's safe and that somebody isn't trafficked her or keeping her. I hope she is willingly, voluntarily where she wants to be.

One of the strangest aspects of Carissa's story is that her belongings were found before anyone even realized that she was missing. Why were her things left on the side of the road in Edmonds? Did Carissa discard them herself? Or could it have been someone else? Angie shared her own theory about why Carissa's belongings were found scattered there. She recalls Carissa telling her that she wanted to change her name to Hazel Grace, and wonders if Carissa, in an attempt to free herself from the trauma she carried, left

left her belongings behind as a way to sever ties with her past identity.

Yes, it's weird. If I put myself in Carissa's position and I no longer want to be known as Carissa and now everybody in my life is now going to know me as Hazel Grace, why am I going to have ID on me? Maybe she threw it out of her car because now I no longer want to be known as Carissa. If I get rid of this, nobody will ever know me as Carissa. If I cut everybody else out of my life that has known me as Carissa, now I'm no longer Carissa.

Ash believes that Carissa could still be out there. During her search, she even met someone who claimed to have seen Carissa and described her as appearing scared. If Carissa is indeed out there, no one knows what state she might be in at this point.

We were in Squim on foot. We walked to the hiking area that was close to where her car was. This is whenever we first went out and we met some of the hikers and one of the hikers saw her in that area. She ran from him. That's one of the things that I was trying to stress. She's going to run from men right now. She does not feel safe around men because of what she has gone through. If you're approaching her, please be careful.

a little bit more cautious because she is on defense with men in general. The area in which she went is a camping area. So there's lots of hiking, open spaces. There's lots of spots that you could set up. But also at the same time, upon myself and Jenna asking around, we also found out that a lot of the homeless people there, especially women, have a tendency to get picked up and trafficked, which is a worry, especially given...

her mental state that she's in and what she's just gone through. I've made sure on any posts that I've made about her to include that she also might be going by Hazel Grace. I think part of that, though, was her trying to reclaim who she was.

Tristan had hoped that Carissa would have been found by now, but he's left grappling with countless scenarios. Could Carissa have found someone to stay with, just as she had stayed with Jaden? Could she be living on the streets? One thing Tristan is certain of is that Carissa wouldn't have disappeared on her own unless she was in the midst of a severe mental health crisis, leaving her vulnerable and in need of an intervention.

I feel like they just think this is a grown adult who decided to leave and they don't want to put resources into it. But she is very vulnerable and she wouldn't have done this if that guy she was with hadn't broken her down so bad and her not being on her meds. I could never have seen her doing that.

She loved her family very dearly and her friends, and she was always in contact. Call it her support system, because she had many close, very good friends, and she talked to them pretty much daily. For us to not be able to text her, call her, I don't even have words.

She's very friendly and outgoing. Even right before she went missing, she made friends with this girl named Jayden. They were camping, I guess, and met up, just became friends. And then Jayden let her house sit. And that's why she was over here in my area. And I wonder if she just met somebody else. She's so outgoing. I could see her getting the opportunity to live on someone's land for free or joining one of those work farms. They call it woofing.

She could be doing that or she could have hitchhiked. The possibility is I could see her doing so many different things and that's why I feel so lost at any answers. I could see her doing anything, really. It's just so unlike her to leave. She was really worried about her brother right before. He had some health problems. But due to her mental health, she had kind of blown up her relationships with her family.

She was really upset at her mom and her uncle and some of her siblings. It's really heartbreaking that she left on that note. I don't think she would have ever intended to do that. She really loved them. I don't think that was like her at all. She's not just someone that should be ignored. Nobody should. Everyone deserves to be cared about and searched for. The cops, they don't see it like that. I think they put more value on others.

Ash isn't sure if Henry was involved in Carissa's disappearance, but she firmly believes that the events leading up to it, particularly those with Henry, were what caused her dear friend to spiral, leaving her vulnerable, and then ultimately she vanished.

It's been months and months and months of trying to process not only what has happened to her, but also what she had gone through. She was in the mode of operation of wanting autonomy, wanting to almost reclaim her power, but also was in a psychosis state. So it came off a little manic. To the average person, they would have been like, she's crazy. Not

not knowing her circumstances. And I don't think that she's crazy. I think she was literally pushed to the point of having a break, basically wanting to become who she wanted to be because Henry, in the time that they had been together, tried to mold her. And I will stand behind what I've said and what I've seen because there is no possible way that her being pushed to this state was just mental illness.

given her physical state from where she was at whenever she got to my house. I cannot stress you her hair, which was one of her favorite things about herself. She always prided herself on her really long hair. And she was sad about the potential of having to cut it off because she had a mat in the back of her head from weeks and weeks of not being able to shower or take care of herself. She wasn't allowed to do anything if Henry didn't deem it acceptable.

Carissa's case has been full of twists and turns. Despite this, Rachel remains unwavering in her determination to find Carissa.

It's very hard. The most important thing for me is to find her. I don't care what people say about her. I don't care because I know who she is, no matter where she's at. My prayer is that she's being protected, especially for her siblings, her youngest brother. She was 15 when he was born. They did all kinds of things together and they were best friends. Her sister,

I just want to find her. She's somewhere. Where? I said to the detective, I understand they have so many limitations. It is a very small area. I just appreciate they've all done the best that they can. As far as, say, the news or social media, it had nothing to do with mental health. It would be all over the news. But because it's mental health, then it's not newsworthy. She's not as valuable because it's a mental health crisis.

I work with a mobile crisis dispatch team, but we also work with therapists that are embedded in the police department. We have three different crisis teams so that we can get people engaged immediately. And so they don't fall through the cracks because that's what we found. That happens if we don't start engaging them immediately. A lot of times they disappear or they fall through the cracks or they end up hurting themselves or hurting someone else.

I know a lot of people in mental health are working for change, but it's low and there's not enough money. These are real human beings who were really loved and have a real story, and they deserve to be remembered and they deserve to be looked for. So what happened to Carissa Castor in July 2024?

The timeline of her movements after leaving Ash's house on July 9th is murky, with many unanswered questions. We know that she stayed for a time with Jaden, someone she had just met, and that Carissa mentioned having an altercation with Jaden's ex. Her loved ones had hoped to connect with Jaden to learn more about that period, especially if Carissa had shared anything that might aid in the search. But their attempts to reach her have been unsuccessful. However, law enforcement did confirm that they had spoken with Jaden.

From there, there are gaps in time where Carissa's whereabouts remain unknown. Her belongings were discovered in Edmonds on July 27th, and her car was found abandoned in Squim on July 31st.

Video footage places her in the area picking flowers on July 23rd. Eyewitness accounts vary, with some recalling seeing the car around July 24th, while others placed it there on the 27th. Despite extensive searches of the area surrounding the car, no trace of Carissa was found nearby. The last known sighting of her was the video showing her picking flowers in the vicinity.

And then nothing. As Carissa's loved ones reflect on their conversations with her, one detail stands out. Carissa had mentioned planning to meet up with Henry, coupled with the abuse allegations she made against him, along with his absence from the search efforts, and the odd statements he made both in conversations and social media videos. Suspicion has naturally fallen onto Henry. Could they have met up? And if they did, did something happen?

On the other hand, Carissa had also expressed a desire to disappear, telling Angie she wanted to take a break from her life. In fact, she mentioned changing her name to Hazel Grace, a new identity she planned to adopt. Could Carissa have gone through with that and decided to leave everything behind, including her family and friends? Her mental health struggles, particularly due to being off of her medication, add another layer of uncertainty to the situation.

Today, Carissa's loved ones continue to hold on to hope by spreading the word about her disappearance. They hope to reach someone who knows something. They believe Carissa's vulnerability, exacerbated by being off of her medication, leaves many possible outcomes, some hopeful and others chilling. But one thing remains certain, they're determined to find her, no matter what the truth may be.

One takeaway from Carissa's story is that on the surface, being that she was a mental health nurse, many would assume that Carissa would be one of the last people something like this would happen to. But mental illness doesn't discriminate, and it can happen to anyone at any time. It could happen to you or someone you love. Everyone matters and deserves to be looked for. But we often see that people are stigmatized. Some people are prioritized while others are deprioritized.

And by sharing Carissa's story, her loved ones not only hope that it helps to find her, but they hope that it can open people's hearts and minds too. If you have any information about the disappearance of Carissa Castor, please contact the Edmonds Police Department at 425-771-0200.

She's never even been hospitalized. She always took the medication. I think a lot of it had to do with the relationship with Henry. Sometimes I know when you get into those types of relationships, it changes just the way you perceive everything. But I mean, she had absolutely had a break with reality. I hope that she is just living in a tent in some homeless encampment and can go to a

a building overnight and sleep. That's my hope that she is okay. I hope she's not in danger or trafficked or picked up by somebody that she was trusting of. All I have to do is just think she's out there being safe. We'll come back when she's ready, but I just think back to the last time I saw her and I just hope that if she is listening to this podcast that she just knows how much we love her

That brings us to the end of episode 479. I'd like to thank everyone who spoke with us for this story. If you have a missing loved one that you'd like to have featured on the show, there's a case submission form at thevanishedpodcast.com. If you'd like to join in on the discussion, there's a page and discussion group on Facebook. You can also find us on Instagram.

If you like our show, please give us a five-star rating and review. You can also support the show by contributing on Patreon, where you can get early and ad-free episodes. Be sure to tune in next week. We'll be covering a case from Canada. Thanks for listening.

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