I have been an Emerald Triangle resident since 2006 and this is year ten in Mendocino County. Please, email me at matthewplafever@gmail.com if you know a story that needs to be told.
Missing Person poster displaying $15,000 reward for any information leading to the whereabouts of missing man Virgil Bussell Jr. [Poster provided by Alicia Audelo]
Late last week, the Hoopa Valley Tribe granted $15,000 towards the search for missing man Virgil Bussell, Junior. Bussell disappeared in late February. According to a poster published by the tribe, the reward is being offered to any person that offers information that leads to “the arrest and convictions of the person or persons involved in his disappearance and his discovery.”
Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairman Byron Nelson, Jr. said the tribe is “one big family” and when someone is in trouble “the tribe does everything it can to help.” In response to the tribe’s contribution, Alicia Audelo, Bussell’s daughter, said, “I am very thankful that our tribe is offering the $15,000 reward. I’m very hopeful that someone will step up and lead us to my dad. Like I said before We Will Not Stop!!!! My father is loved beyond words & my family & I just want him home!!!!”
52-year-old Hoopa man, Virgil Owen Bussell, Jr., was reported missing on March 25, 2020 by his family. They contacted Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office that evening after discovering his abandoned truck on Deerhorn Road southeast of Weitchpec, California.
According to his daughter Alicia Audelo, “It had been roughly about three weeks since he’d been to my house so I kind of had a feeling that something wasn’t right because he always comes to my house.” Virgil’s twin sister posted on social media inquiring if anyone had seen her brother and someone commented they had seen his vehicle on Deerhorn Road, explained Audelo.
Bussell is a Native American male, 5 feet 8 inches tall, approximately 180 pounds, with a short mohawk style haircut as well as a goatee and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and work boots.
Bussell Junior’s daughter Alicia Audelo said her father often goes by “Uppity” or “Buscat.” She also provided some of her father’s notable physical characteristics: “He has tribal tattoos on his arms and on his chest, he is graying on his face and on his head. On his right upper arm, he has “BUSCAT” tattooed and a noticeable lump on his forehead.”
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Asha Kreimer [Photograph provided by the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page]
Asha Kreimer was far away from home in the early fall of 2015 living on Mendocino County’s primitive coastline. Growing up in Australia, she moved to California’s Bay Area in October 2011 and fell in love with Jamai Gayle. The couple moved to Albion finding jobs and living the tranquil, rural life known to many on California’s North Coast. In September 2015, Asha showed signs of mental distress including insomnia and sporadically entering catatonic states. Asha’s mental anguish intensified to the point that she was rushed to Fort Bragg’s hospital where Gayle looked on as doctor’s physically restrained his girlfriend. Not deeming her a threat to herself or others, doctors sent her home where Jamai and a visiting childhood friend attempted to soothe Asha in her torment.
On September 21, 2015, Jamai and Sally Scales, the childhood friend, thought it beneficial to get Asha out of the house, sight-see, and eat a meal at a local restaurant. The trio went to Point Arena’s Rollerville Cafe for breakfast. Asha did not touch her plate, engaged little in conversation, and told Gayle she was going to use the restroom. This would be the last confirmed sighting of Asha. Her disappearance would become one of Mendocino County’s most notorious cold cases spawning YouTube videos, podcasts, and documentaries. Five years later, Asha Kreimer’s fate remains a mystery to loved ones and law enforcement.
Asha Kreimer was born on May 2, 1989, in Hilo, Hawaii to Russell and Jeannie Kreimer.. In 1991, with her older sister Gancie, Asha’s family relocated to Redcliffe, Australia where Asha’s mother Jeannie studied midwifery. In 1996, Jeannie and Russell separated and Jeannie took a job as a remote area nurse deep in Australia’s interior in an aboriginal community called Pipalyatjara. Asha and her sister attend school in nearby Alice Springs that Jeannie characterized as a “small, unsafe town where there exists a clash of cultures. There is a disparity between all the different peoples, Somalis, Muslims, personnel from the Pine Gap American Army base.” Jeannie remembered that her daughter Asha “was scared of living there.
Asha’s mother recalled a seminal moment in her daughter’s adolescence that occurred in Alice Springs: “When she was 12 or 13, Asha took an early bus home and ended up walking home where she was stopped by a police officer and questioned about a violent rape that happened in the area. After this, Asha had trouble leaving the house and we decided to send her to boarding school.”
After briefly attending a private school in Alice Springs, Asha chose to attend Saint Peter’s College, 1,500 miles away on the western edge of Brisbane, capital of Queensland. There, Jeannie said her daughter proved “highly-intelligent, well-liked, and loved by her friends.” She participated in track and field and soccer. Asha’s high school friend Jillian Van Koutrik remembered Asha as “popular and “kind of an old soul”. Van Koutrik characterized Asha as somewhat of a trendsetter: “she always knew about the ‘cool things’ before anyone else.”
After high school, Asha moved to Mullumbimby, Australia which served as her mother Jeannie’s base while she worked stints within Australia’s aboriginal communities. Asha took an interest in journalism school but decided to take some time off. She worked at a place called The Arts Factory where she and her sister studied remedial massage. Jillian Van Koutrik, a high school friend of Asha’s, characterized this phase of Asha’s life as “quiet.” Asha confided in Jillian a determined desire to travel.
Jeannie returned home from working a stint in the Australian interior and found that her two daughters had “hatched a plan” to move to California. For Jeannie, her daughters’ decision to move was “out of the blue.” In June 2011, Gancie and Asha boarded a flight to the United States and found their new home in San Francisco.
Jeannie helped her daughters get situated in a San Francisco studio apartment and Asha got a job quickly working at Burke Williams Day Spa. In a twist of fate that would alter Asha’s life in the United States, within weeks of calling San Francisco home she met Jamai Gayle, the man she would call her boyfriend and lived with up until the day she disappeared.
Jamai recalls how they first met: “We met on my birthday at a party. Asha and her sister showed up there.” Commenting on what initially drew them together, Jamai said, “We had a lot in common. We’re both of mixed race. Both of our mothers were nurses. Both of our fathers were musicians. She also knew my brothers that had traveled in Australia.”
Jamai and Asha’s intimacy grew fast. “We started to hang out pretty much every day,” Jamai said. Asha’s relationship with Jamai created distance between her two daughters but Asha’s fondness for her new relationship proved powerful. Jamai introduced Asha to his family who resides in the Bay Area and they moved in together living in San Francisco’s Mission District.
A Skype message Asha sent her high school friend Jillian Van Koutrik inviting her to come visit her Mendocino county home. [Photograph provided by Jillian Van Koutrik]
In 2013, Jamai and Asha found San Francisco’s housing market difficult to afford so they began browsing Craigslist where they saw a listing for an Albion property nestled amongst the redwoods. Moving to Mendocino’s coastline, Asha found employment at the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek and Albion’s Digging Dog Nursery. In a Skype message to her high school friend Jillian Van Koutrik, Asha spoke proudly of her new home describing it having “two houses and a jacuzzi” and invited her to come to visit their bucolic home anytime.
Asha’s mother Jeannie did grow concerned that her daughter’s relocation to Mendocino County converged with a habit of recreational marijuana use. “Both sides of Asha’s family had a predisposition towards mental illness,” Jeannie explained.
A photo collage Asha sent her high school friend Jillian Van Koutrik depicting some of the sights of her life in Mendocino County. [Photograph provided by Jillian Van Koutrik]
In September 2015, the tectonic plates of Asha’s mind began to irrevocably shift and her mental fragmentation would ultimately avalanche into her disappearance. In the first week of September, she went to Los Angeles where she visited her older sister Ganci to celebrate her birthday. Jamai, in a document entitled “Timeline of Asha Disappearance,” described picking Asha up from her trip on September 6, 2015 where she expressed wanting “to make changes in her life” including getting a driver’s license and improving her relationships with people. Jamai described Asha being nearly silent during the majority of the drive north to Mendocino County and seeming relieved when they arrived back at their property in Albion.
Jamai sensed that something was different about Asha after returning from this trip to Los Angeles: “There was never any depression like what she was like when she got back from LA. There were always ups and downs. She got really really quiet, reserved.”
Asha’s despondency continued after they returned home. Jamai said Asha’s overall demeanor changed, becoming “quiet and sad” seemingly “not trusting her own judgment about everything” Jamai described Asha ruminating on all of the personal issues that she had since they had first met. She confided in Jamai that she wanted to get married and have a baby but was hoping to see a doctor because of a difficulty they were having in conceiving. Jamai described him and Asha discussing “therapy and she said that she wanted to go.”
Jamai speculated another factor in Asha’s angst was “the upcoming visits of two of her friends”: Olivia Ponton, a friend of Asha’s older sister whom Asha had met only once, and Sally Scales, a childhood friend of Asha’s. Asha’s nerves manifested in wanting to clean the house “even though we had been cleaning” since she returned from Los Angeles.
When Olivia arrived, Jamai wrote she was acting “okay, still depressed, but talking about it.” Jamai noticed that Asha was not “eating as much as usual” and her sleep patterns had been significantly disrupted since her return from Los Angeles. “She would wake up at 3:00 am. Before that, she would always sleep through the night.”
Asha enjoying her rural living in Mendocino County[Photograph provided by the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page]
Asha seemed particularly anxious about Sally Scales’ visit, Jamai noticed. “She kept apologizing for it” which confused Jamai because “Asha had spoken of her throughout our relationship and said she was like a sister.” Asha even suggested that Sally would be “more comfortable at [Jamai’s] mother’s house in San Francisco” saying she would rather Sally not stay in their house. When Jamai asked why he said: “I could not really get a straightforward answer.”
On September 16, Jamai and Asha drove to San Francisco to pick up Sally Scales from San Francisco International Airport. The trio went to Jamai’s mother’s house for dinner which would be the “last full meal that Asha ate before she disappeared.” Jamai confided in his mother that evening that Asha had been depressed and requested that she talk to Asha.
The next day, September 17, Jamai, Sally, and Asha traveled to the town of Mendocino to purchase wine, cheese, and cold cuts from the Harvest Market. Oddly, in the middle of browsing, “Asha left the store early and went and sat in the car.” Sally commented to Jamai that Asha seemed depressed and surmised that she “liked the country lifestyle but didn’t want to be so far away from the city”. Jamai noticed that Asha ate meager portions including “a few bites of bread and two glasses of wine.”
On Friday, September 18, Asha came downstairs from the room her friend Sally was staying and shared with Jamai suddenly recalling memories of childhood sexual trauma. Dumbfounded by Asha’s sudden confessions, Jamai inquired about her unexpected acknowledgement of childhood trauma. Asha told Jamai that Sally and she had been reminiscing over childhood photos and a picture of a white house prompted the memories of abuse.
When considering the veracity of Asha’s troubling claims during her slide into psychosis, it is essential to consider delusions are a common symptom of manic episodes. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms experienced by those in the throws of a bipolar schizoaffective episode include “Delusions — having false, fixed beliefs, despite evidence to the contrary.” Other symptoms that Asha demonstrated, “Bizarre or unusual behavior”, “Symptoms of depression, such as feeling empty, sad or worthless”, and “Periods of manic mood, with an increase in energy and a decreased need for sleep over several days, and behaviors that are out of character”
Hoping to find solace for a clearly troubled Asha, Jamai suggested she seek a mental health professional. Asha agreed to seek help and they contacted local therapists, clinics, and women’s groups in the area. Jamai and Asha ultimately “made a plan to go on Monday since the clinics were closed for the weekend.” That night, Jamai woke up to Asha shouting “I haven’t gotten over my father’s death…” These late-night outbursts would continue to occur until the last night before her disappearance.
Asha continued to be quiet and withdrawn the following day, Saturday, September 19. Sitting with Asha, Jamai, Sally, and Olivia attempted to engage her in conversation, and Asha would “shrug her shoulders” and would strangely gesticulate with her hands twisting “her wrists back and forth with her fingers spread wide”. Jamai said the behavior was “odd and creepy” and despite attempts to communicate, Asha “wouldn’t respond when spoken to”.
Jamai asked Asha, “Do you feel like hurting yourself?” She said she did, prompting Jamai to call a crisis hotline. Jamai said, “I put Asha on the phone to talk to him but she would not speak.” The call center staff member said all of the local clinics were closed and the next step to address Asha’s crisis was taking her to the emergency room. Asha declined and throughout that day Sally and Jamai would check-in with her confirming that she did not want to seek emergency treatment.
Asha Kreimer [Photograph provided by the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page]
On Sunday, September 20, hoping to please Asha and lighten her mood, Jamai took her and their guests to Asha’s favorite restaurant. There she ate only a “nibble”. As they sat eating, Asha told Jamai that she wanted to call her mother. Not having cell phone reception or the internet, Jamai assured Asha that when they got home she could call her mother.
Upon arriving home, Jamai gave Asha the phone and she immediately dialed 911 and hung up. The emergency dispatcher called back and Jamai “gave Asha the phone and again, she wouldn’t speak.” Jamai asked once again if it was time they went to the emergency room and Asha acquiesced. Jamai told the emergency dispatcher “what had been going on with Asha and that we would be heading to the emergency room.”
As Jamai drove Asha to the Mendocino Coast District Hospital’s Emergency Room, she told Jamai that she thought he “was not faithful to her in the beginning of [their] relationship”. Jamai assured her that “whatever it is, don’t worry about it and that we would deal with it later”. He told her “right now, let’s just worry about getting you some help.”
Arriving at the hospital, a nurse escorted Jamai and Asha into a room where Jamai “explained to the nurse that she was under emotional and mental distress.” Placing Asha in a wheelchair, the nurse pushed her into the emergency room and before entering, Asha “put her feet on the floor abruptly stopping the wheelchair and stood up, then nearly fell over.” Jamai and the nurse “stabilized her and she reluctantly walked through the doors.”
After just “five steps into the emergency room”, Asha’s condition suddenly intensified and “her legs, arms, and her body straightened” and her “eyes got wide, and she stumbled backwards into the nurse’s station.” This commotion caught the attention of the entire emergency room. A doctor inquired whether “Asha was on drugs. I said no.” As Jamai explained Asha’s behaviors over the previous days, Asha suddenly “got up and bolted out of the emergency room.” Jamai attempted to restrain her but “she had super strength.” Hospital staff did not offer to assist Jamai as he chased after the agitated Asha exiting the hospital onto the street outside. Jamai “verbally and physically tried to get her back in the hospital” but Asha resisted and got out of Jamai’s hold. Following the instructions of an on-looking nurse, Jamai called 911 and followed Asha from a safe distance.
Asha proceeded to walk west toward Fort Bragg’s Main Street while Jamai pursued “talking to a 911 dispatcher.” At one point, Asha approached a passing car occupied by a family and “tried to get in”. The family “didn’t let her in and drove away.” Jamai then watched a “creepy druggie looking man” take notice of Asha and pull over to speak with her. Jamai observed Asha pull the door handles of the man’s vehicle trying to get in. The man appeared to roll down his window, “look around”, and upon taking notice of Jamai watching them, drove away.
Quickly, a Fort Bragg Police officer arrived and asked Jamai what was happening. Jamai explained the situation and the officer questioned Asha. Unable to answer the officer’s inquiries, the officer decided to place Asha under a 5150 hold which refers to the California law code for the temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness. Asha was placed in handcuffs and Jamai “rode with her in the back of the police car back to the emergency room.”
Upon arrival at the emergency room, restraining Asha required two police officers, a paramedic, and three hospital staff members to wrestle her into a four-point restraint. As Asha writhed in the hospital bed, a doctor inquired about Asha’s medical history. Jamai divulged multiple members of Asha’s family have mental illness and had experienced manic episodes. The doctor directly asked Asha if she was “hearing voices or seeing things” and Asha said she was not. Consulting with Jamai in private, the doctor believed Asha was “experiencing a psychosis and a manic bipolar episode”.
Hospital staff directed Asha and Jamai to wait while a psychiatric social worker arrived from Ukiah. During that time, a gentle nurse asked if Asha would be willing to cooperate in providing a blood and urine sample. Asha obliged. After collecting the urine sample, the orderly surmised that Asha had a urinary tract infection because the urine was cloudy and had an orange/yellow color. Asha attempted to leave “about 15 times” but the orderly would calmly tell her “that she had to sit down or lay back down and she would.”
When the psychiatric social worker arrived, he asked Asha if she intended to hurt herself. Jamai described her response: “she did not answer but instead, she got up and reached for a piece of nylon rope that was holding some ducting to the ceiling.” Jamai saw this response as a “suicidal gesture”. Asha then started repeating, “I killed Joy. Eddie killed Joy.” Asha was referring to Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan, their neighbor and Joy May Taylor, his long-time girlfriend who were both safe at the time. In response, the psychiatric social worker responded “I don’t know about Eddie. I don’t care about Joy” All I care about is you and how you’re doing.” Jamai expressed that it felt like the worker was “ignoring her message.”
Asha once again reached for the nylon rope on the ceiling while the psychiatric social worker “filled out paperwork.” Reading aloud what was required to be released from a 5150 hold, the psychiatric social worker asked Jamai who, besides himself, should be named on the documentation. Jamai instructed the social worker to include both his and Asha’s mother on the HIPPA documentation. Seeking Asha’s signature, the social worker held the document out for Asha to sign and she refused. Jamai said the social worker “put the pen on her chest” and she proceeded to “scribble all over the HIPPA form.” In response, Jamai said the social worker said: “you know that’s a legal document you just scribbled out.” Based on Asha’s behavior towards the social worker, Jamai assumed Asha would remain on the 5150 hold.
The social worker told Asha about two patients who attempted suicide that he had evaluated that day. Afterward, Asha signed the document and the social worker asked her directly if she wanted to be released from the 5150 hold or go to a mental health facility. In response, she said “I don’t want to be lonely.”
Hoping to calm Asha in her troubled state, the social worker consulted with one of the emergency room doctors to provide her with Ativan which the doctor denied. The social worker provided Jamai with a list of other clinics that were available the next day. During this exchange, the social worker revealed that he, in fact, was the one who took Jamai’s phone to the crisis hotline the previous day. Jamai was shocked at the information. The social worker officially took Asha off the 5150 hold, a male nurse handed Jamai discharge paperwork, and encouraged them to “come back if you need to.”
Asha with her beloved dogs [Photograph provided by the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page]
The drive home was punctuated by more of Asha’s disturbing words and behaviors. She admitted to Jamai that in Australia she had an abortion, that she had been unfaithful to him and slept with one of his friends, and continued to repeat, “I killed Joy.” At one point, on the darkened, rural Middle Ridge Road, Jamai said that Asha tried to jump from the vehicle.
Upon returning home, Asha’s suicidal gestures continued. Jamai offered her a Tylenol PM to help her sleep and Asha grabbed for the bottle “as if she wanted to take all the pills.” While cooking dinner, Jamai opened the silverware drawer and Asha “reached in the drawer behind me for a knife.” At one point that evening, their neighbor Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan came and smoked a cigarette with Jamai and offered words of comfort to Asha.
That night, Jamai stayed up while Asha’s erratic behaviors continued. She stayed fully dressed throughout the night. He heard her start the car multiple times even though she did not have a driver’s license. He described finding her outside holding a candle burning a piece of paper. Jamai said, “I asked her what she was doing and she pointed the candle fire to me. I got upset and I told her she cannot play with fire.” At one point in the night, Sally and Jamai attempted to soothe Asha and offer her food and water but she refused, throwing away “all of the food and chocolate we gave her.”
On the morning of Monday, September 21, Jamai called his mother hoping she would talk with Asha. Overhearing their conversation, Jamai noticed Asha using a “fake” and “upbeat” voice falsely claiming the hospital had provided her with medication. Jamai took the phone away, told his mother what had really happened, and she expressed to Jamai that Asha should be on medication immediately.
Concerned about how little food she had eaten, Jamai offered to make her a protein shake which she took a sip of and “gave me the coldest stare I’ve ever seen in my life and spit it back in the cup.” Distracted in the kitchen, Jamai failed to notice Asha leave the house. He went outside and found her “jacket lying in the middle of the road that leads off of our property.” After searching the house and immediate yard, Sally and Jamai got in the car and drove to Middle Ridge Road where they found her “walking calmly” and brought her back home. Moments after getting her back home, she disappeared again. Strangely, Jamai found her “standing by the side of a tree watching us look for her.”
Sally’s care and concern for her childhood friend were becoming strained. Hoping to ease the tension and provide Asha an outlet, Jamai suggested they take their dogs on a walk but Asha was not interested. Confused, Jamai asked Asha what her goal was in trying to run off. Her response was clear and troubling. He said she told him, “I want to kill myself.” After she stated her motivations for running away, Asha turned around and sprinted away faster than Jamai had “had ever seen her move in [his] life.” She seemed impervious to pain when her sandals flew off and her feed “pounded” on the gravel road with no effect.
After a brief period of time, Asha “burst back into the house out of breath” telling Sally and Olivia that she had felt like running. Jamai noticed a call from Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan, their neighbor, and in a voicemail, he expressed deep concern for Asha’s well-being. Sally suggested that they “take a drive down the coast” hoping it would calm Asha down. Jamai remembered Asha’s affinity for sleeping in the car and stories about long, relaxing car rides with Sally growing up in Australia. Despite the need to follow up at a clinic, Jamai thought it prudent to provide Asha a respite from the chaos of the previous day. As they drove on Middle Ridge Road heading away from their property, Eddie was in the road and when Jamai rolled down his window to greet him, he pointed at Asha and warned Jamai, “Do not let her out of your sight!”
Jamai, Sally, and Asha drove south on Highway 1 admiring the austere Mendocino coastline and Sally suggested they stop for breakfast. Knowing Asha’s ritual of morning coffee and hoping she would eat, they parked their car just outside of the Point Arena Lighthouse to eat at the Rollerville Cafe, an old school American diner.
The trio entered the establishment, were quickly assigned a table, and a waitress took their order and chatted with Sally. Jamai said Asha “sat and said nothing.” Asha was not communicative with the waitress and did not touch the meal she ordered. An Alaskan fisherman came up to their table at one point to strike a conversation regaling them with stories of fishing in the Arctic. While this man spoke, at one point Jamai noticed “Asha started to laugh in a very peculiar manner.” Examining her emotionality, Jamai thought “she looked as if she was laughing and crying at the same time.” Jamai said, “This would be last time I really looked at Asha’s face.”
After they finished, Sally asked where she could find the restroom. Jamai said, The waitress directed her out back and, as soon as Sally “opened the side door of the restaurant, Asha said ‘I’m going to go to the bathroom too.’” Jamai said he repeated loudly, “Oh, you’re going to the bathroom, too” in hopes Sally would hear him and keep her eye on Asha. The image of Asha leaving the Rollerville Cafe out the side door would be burned in Jamai’s mind forever- it would be the last time he ever saw her.
Asha walked out of the restaurant between 10:30am-11:00, Jamai recalls. While waiting for the women to use the restroom, Jamai went to the car. Thinking back on his neighbor Eddie’s advice to not let her out of her sight, Jamai got out of his car to check on her. At the same time Sally approached the car and was immediately concerned because she realized her assumption that Asha was with Jamai was wrong. Jamai recalled, “Sally comes around the corner and puts her hands up and says, ‘Asha is not with you?’ I said, ‘She followed you.’ Sally said she didn’t see her.”
An overhead perspective depicting Rollerville Cafe’s proximity to the Point Arena Lighthouse and surrounding coastline. [Screenshot of Google Maps]
For the next three hours, Jamai and Sally frantically searched the nearby roads, fields, and forests for any sign of Asha. With the restaurant being a quarter mile from Highway 1, Jamai and Sally hoped that Asha had hitchhiked home so they sped north. When they found the house empty, Sally decided to stay behind at the Albion home in case Asha arrived and Jamai would return to the cafe continuing his search. Jamai explained that as he drove south “I called 911 reporting her missing.” Jamai returned to the parking lot near the Point Arena Lighthouse and walked the cliffsides calling out Asha’s name. Jamai noticed a Mendocino County Sheriff scouring the area for Asha. For approximately two hours Jamai traveled between the Rollerville Cafe and Point Arena searching for any sign of Asha to no avail.
Jamai finally returned to Albion to check in with Sally hoping Asha might have returned in his absence. Using the “Find my iPhone” app, Sally and Jamai were able to deduce that Asha’s phone was close to the property but they could not locate it. It would be two days later when Jamai was outside that he found her iPhone obscured by foliage. Later, Jamai surmised that at some point during the night/morning she dropped it on the lawn.
Over the next three days, efforts to search for Asha mounted. Jamai produced flyers and distributed them up and down Highway 1. Friends started to arrive offering aid in the search for Asha, including Jeannie Kremier, Asha’s mother, and Jamai’s mother. Jeannie said she was in “California within 48 hours of Asha missing,”,flying into San Francisco where she was picked up by Jamai’s mom.
Three days after Asha went missing, the neighbor Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan told Jamai that he had actually seen Asha on the morning she disappeared before they had driven south to Point Arena. He had found Asha on his property, attempting to enter a trailer, as if “she was trying to hide out.” Asha confessed to Eddie a series of disturbing claims including, “Jamai beats [our German shepard]”, “I killed Joy [Eddie’s girlfriend of 15 years] and also provided a graphic description of sexual abuse she exerpeinced as a child. Knowing of Asha’s recent 5150 and hoping to help Jamai, Eddie put his jacket around her and encouraged her to return home. Eddie told Jamai that she dropped the jacket on the ground and walked down the road where she would be picked up later by Jamai and Sally. After hearing this disturbing information from Eddie, Jamai shared what he had heard with Jeannie and Gancie. Jeannie characterized the presentation of the claims of sexual molestation as Jamai attempting to “deflect responsibility”.
Coincidentally, three years after Asha disappeared, her neighbor Eddie would also. According to his entry on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan went missing on September 1, 2018 after being seen at the Albion Store heading to Fort Bragg. At the time of his disappearance, he was 52 years old.
Over the next few weeks, unconfirmed sightings began to emerge. On October 2, Jamai received an anonymous phone call from a woman who said she was “100% that she saw Asha in Gualala about four days after she went missing.” The anonymous caller recalled seeing Asha at a supermarket getting in a green, older model Neon Geo with four surfboards on top driven by an older man. After hearing this, searchers went to the Gualala supermarket showing employees pictures of Asha who said “she looked familiar” but they were not sure when they saw her.
Since 2015, those close to Asha have lived what Jamai calls “a daily nightmare”. Many online sleuths have suggested Jamai is directly involved with Asha’s disappearance. Mendocino County Sheriff Offices Public Information Officer Gregory Van Patten simply said, “We do not consider Jamai a person of interest. There is no information to suggest he is connected to her disappearance.”
Asha Kreimer’s disappearance has been investigated by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office since she vanished. Van Patten described the case as unique because her disappearance occurred in broad daylight, in front of a restaurant’s patrons and staff.
Van Patten said MCSO conducted a thorough ground search of the area and searched the nearby beaches and oceans to no avail.
Van Patten theorized about possible scenarios that explain Asha’s disappearance. Considering the proximity the Rollerville Cafe is to the ocean, Van Patten speculated she could have walked off into the ocean. Scenarios that include other parties that Van Patten described were her voluntarily obtaining a ride from a passerby or non-voluntarily, she could’ve been abducted by one or more persons when she left that restaurant. Lastly, Van Patten speculated that she could have purposefully left the scene with the goal to “drop off the face of the earth.”
Van Patten conceded that at this point “The investigation into Asha’s disappearance has gone cold.” He hoped for “that one person who has information that could bust through the door of our understanding.”
Asha’s disappearance had a resurgence in public awareness when the Netflix documentary MurderMountian interviewed Jeannie Kreimer about her daughter vanishing and included footage of her distributing posters and asking around Garberville if anyone had seen her daughter.
Jeannie explained she was in Garberville when a man she struck up a conversation with said, “I’m with Netflix. We’re here filming. We’re filming a story about missing persons.” He quickly called Jeannie and told her, “We’d like to share your daughter’s story.” Jeannie was initially nervous but knew her daughter’s case being featured in a documentary could give the case a lot of exposure.
Jeannie was surprised finding she “got more negativity then I could’ve imagined after the documentary.” She experienced “missing person stalkers” and was contacted by people “that thought they knew everything about the case”
Commenting on the implication that Netflix’s Murder Mountain documentary connecting Asha’s disappearance to the Alderpoint and the Humboldt County marijuana black market, MCSO’s Captain Van Patten said, “It is a pretty big stretch to think she could be at Alderpoint on Murder Mountain. From what we know about Asha, her lifestyle was not like the Murder Mountain lifestyle. That wasn’t necessarily a magnet for Asha.”
Jeannie tries to travel to California at least every two months hoping to one day find out what happened to her daughter. She distributes flyers, she speaks with strangers, she shares with anyone who will listen how much she longs for answers. Jeannie said “each time I visit the States, I come with hope that I will make contact with someone who is able to bring resolution to my daughter’s case. My trips are acts of love for my daughter. I look forward to connecting with Asha so she can reassure me that she is “OK.” Every bit of information is valuable and sheds light on the unknown.”
Asha with one of her beloved dogs and the red triangle tattoo on Asha’s right wrist. [Photograph provided by the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page]
Asha Kreimer is 5’10’’ and weighs between 135-148 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Some of her distinguishable features include a noticeable gap between her teeth, a birthmark under her left breast, and a tattoo of a red triangle on her right wrist. She speaks with a pronounced Australian accent.
If you know anything about the whereabouts of Asha Kreimer, please contact Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707)463-4611 referencing Case # 2015-23867. For the first time, Asha’s mother is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to Asha’s return. Other reporting options include messaging the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page or emailing us at coldcasemendocino@gmail.com, or messaging us via Facebook, or calling in a tip at (707)560-1543.
Cold Case Mendocino works hard to tell the story of the missing and murdered. If you appreciate our efforts, please consider donating.
Sources
Jamai Gayle, Phone Interview, October 16, 2019
Jeannie Kreimer, Phone Interview, September 13, 2019
Jillian Van Koutrik, Online Interview, September 15, 2019
Mendocino County Sheriff Office’s Public Information Officer Captain Gregory Van Patton, Phone Interview, November 7, 2019
Victor Medina [Imagen del sitio web de la Oficina del Fiscal General de California]
Traducción de Beatriz Ortiz
Victor Medina de 30 años de San José, California, estuvo trabajando en un jardín de cultivo de marihuana en Covelo. Él hizo una videollamada con su familia la noche del 20 de Abril, del 2020. Al día siguiente su amigo y compañero de trabajo Benjamin Chavez Reynoso llegó a San José, California, a dejar un vehículo a la esposa de Medina. Con curiosidad de donde estaba su esposo, la esposa de Medina le preguntó a Reynoso sobre el paradero de el. Al cual Reynoso contestó, “Él viene en camino, venía manejando detrás de mí.” Medina no llegó a su casa esa noche y a la mañana siguiente un oficial de la policía llegó a la casa de los Medina en San José para informarles que su camioneta había sido localizada sobre una carretera rural prendida en llamas a las afueras de Hollister, California. Las preocupaciones de la familia del hombre desaparecido aumentaron aún más, cuando el miércoles 29 de Abril por la mañana, recibieron una llamada de un hombre hablando en espanol exigiendo $10,000 por el rescate de su ser querido.
Maria Naranjo, hermana de Medina, describe a su hermano y a Reynoso como amigos que han trabajado en los jardines de cultivo de marihuana en el norte de California. Cuenta que los dos viajaban regularmente de San José a Covelo desde Febrero de este año. En estos viajes solían llevarse los vehículos de Medina (una Nissan Titan color azul y una Nissan Pathfinder color blanca), los dos manejando una cada uno haciendo una caravana.
Medina le había contado a su familia algo inquietante que había pasado a principios de Abril, en donde “un trabajador había muerto en uno de los invernaderos por inhalar los gases”. Medina en otras ocasiones les había mencionado su preocupacíon por su propia seguridad diciéndoles, “Hay hombres armados aquí y toman mucho.” Durante la videollamada del 20 de Abril, Naranjo cuenta que, “Víctor parecía un poco ebrio y se escuchaban voces altas y risas al fondo de la llamada.”
Benjamin Chávez Reynoso, el hombre de la familia cree haber estado con Víctor antes de que perdieran contacto con él. [Fotografía proporcionada por el sobrino de Víctor Enrique Esparza]
Naranjo y el resto de la familia de Medina creen que Benjamin Chavez Reynoso “tiene información sobre qué le pasó a Víctor.” Enrique Esparza, sobrino de Medina, dijo que, “Desde que Benjamin dejó la camioneta azul, su número ha sido desconectado, y nadie incluyendo su familia de Reynoso no ha podido contactarlo.” Esparza explica que Reynoso vivía con Medina y su esposa en la casa de San José. El dia que llego a dejar la Nissan Titan azul de Medina, él “entro y juntó todas sus pertenencias” de la casa de los Medina, y nadie lo ha visto o ha escuchado nada de él.
El sábado 25 de Abril, la familia de Medina viajó a Hollister a investigar el lugar en donde fue hallada la Nissan Pathfinder blanca en llamas al lado del camino rural. Esparza cuenta, “La policía ya había levantado la camioneta pero había rastros de ella en el lugar.” Esparza describe, “Que la familia buscó a los alrededores por alguna pista de Víctor or su cuerpo, pero que no encontraron nada.”
Esparza cuenta que el 29 de Abril, la esposa de Medina recibió una llamada de un hombre hablando en espanol, pidiendo $10,000 por el rescate de Medina. El hombre amenazó “con matar a Víctor” si el rescate no se pagaba todo completo. Esparza dice que la esposa de Medina pidió ver una foto de su esposo para comprobar que esa persona lo tenia con sí mismo. La persona respondió “Se va hacer a mi manera.” La esposa de Víctor contacto a la policía y les dio aviso sobre las llamadas amenazadoras, agregó Esparza.
El Oficial de Información al Público del departamento de San José dio un comunicado sobre la investigación de la desaparición de Medina. “El viernes 24 de Abril del 2020, a las 7:24 pm oficiales del departamento de policía de San José tomaron un reporte de una person desaparecida. Median fue visto por última vez el lunes 20 de Abril del 2020, alrededor de las 10:26 pm, durante una conversación a través de una videollamada. El último conocimiento de su localidad era en Covelo, California.” El oficial agregó, “Esta es una investigación activa y no hay ningún otro detalle disponible al momento.”
El Oficial de Información al Público del Alguacil del Condado de Mendocino (Mendocino County Sheriff”s Office) Greg Van Patten confirmó que Medina trabajaba en Covelo como “un trabajador de las operaciones de marihuana/cannabis.” Van Patten describe el papel de MCSO en la búsqueda de Medina como “asistir en la investigación en este caso durante los últimos días a la petición del departamento de policía de San José. Van Patten dijo que los investigadores del MCSO determinaron que (Medina) supuestamente salió de Covelo en las últimas par de semanas para regresar a la aria de la bahía antes de ser reportado como desaparecido.”
Victor Medina [Imagen del sitio web de la Oficina del Fiscal General de California]
Victor Medina nació el 10/15/1990. Es latino, mide 5’7’’, y pesa 170 libras. Tiene pelo negro y ojos cafes. Rasgos distinguibles son un tatuaje en su brazo derecho que dice “Shark City” y otro tatuaje en su brazo izquierdo que dice “SJ”. Su hermana Maria Naranjo cuenta que la ropa que él vestía eran “pantalones de mezclilla azules, playera azul claro con un logotipo de la marca Fox en blanco, zapatos Nike color negro, y una gora gris con la letra “C” en rojo.”
La policía del departamento de San José pide que “cualquiera con alguna información llame al 911. Si desean permanecer en anónima pueden llamar al Crime Stoppers al 408-947-7867.”
Victor Medina [Picture from the California Office of Attorney General’s Website]
Victor Medina, a 30-year-old man from San Jose, California, was working on a marijuana grow in Covelo. He video-chatted with his family on the night of April 20, 2020. The following day Medina’s friend and fellow plantation worker Benjamin Chavez Reynoso arrived in San Jose, California dropping off a vehicle to Medina’s wife. Curious as to where her husband was, Medina’s wife inquired about his location, and Reynoso said, “He’s on his way. He was driving behind me.” Medina never came home that night and the following day a police officer arrived at Medina’s San Jose home to inform his wife that his truck had been found smoldering on a rural road outside Hollister, California. The missing man’s family’s concerns mounted when, on the morning of Wednesday, April 29, they were contacted by Spanish-speaking men demanding a $10,000 ransom for their loved one.
Benjamin Chavez Reynoso, the man believed to have knowledge of Victor Medina’s last known movements, and Victor at a fitness center [Photograph provided by Enrique Esparza]
Maria Naranjo, Medina’s sister, described her brother and Reynoso as friends who worked together in a marijuana field in Northern California. She said the pair had regularly traveled between San Jose and Covelo since February of this year. On these trips, Medina would take both of his vehicles (a blue Nissan Titan and a white Nissan Pathfinder) and Reynoso would drive one and they would caravan together.
Medina told his family a disturbing story about “a worker [dying] in a greenhouse due to gas exposure” at the beginning of April. Medina sometimes expressed concerns for his safety telling Naranjo, “There are men with guns up here and they drink a lot.” During the last contact with Medina on the evening of April 20, Naranjo said, “Victor seemed tipsy and there were loud voices and laughter in the background”.
Benjamin Chavez Reynoso, the man family believes to have been with Victor before they lost contact with him. [Photograph provided by Victor’s nephew Enrique Esparza]
Naranjo and the rest of Medina’s family believe Benjamin Chavez Reynoso might have“information about what happened to Victor.” Enrique Esparza, Medina’s nephew, said, “Ever since Benjamin dropped off the blue truck, his number has been changed and no one, not even his family, has been able to get ahold of him.” Esparza explained that Reynoso cohabitated with Medina and his wife at their San Jose home. The day he dropped off Medina’s blue Nissan Titan, he “went inside and grabbed all his belongings” from the Medina home, and has not been seen or heard from since.
On Saturday, April 25th, Medina’s family traveled to Hollister to investigate the site where the white Nissan Pathfinder was found burned on the roadside. Esparza said, “The police had already picked up the truck and there were pieces of the vehicle on the ground.” Esparza described the family searching the area for any signs of “Victor or his body but we didn’t find anything.”
On April 29, Esparza said that Victor’s wife got a call for a ransom for $10,000 from a Spanish-speaking man. The caller threatened to “kill Victor” if the ransom was not paid in full, Esparza explained. Esparza said Victor’s wife demanded a picture of her husband to confirm the caller had him and the caller responded, “It’s my way or the highway.” Victor’s wife contacted law enforcement and told them of threatening phone calls, Esparza added.
San Jose Police Department’s Public Information Officer provided the following statement about their investigation into Medina’s disappearance: “On Friday, April 24, 2020, at about 7:24 PM, San Jose police officers met with someone at the San Jose Police Department to report Victor Medina as a missing person. Medina was last seen on Monday, April 20, 2020, at about 10:26 PM, during a video phone conversation. His last known location was in Covelo, California.” He added, “This is an ongoing investigation and no other details are available at this time.”
Victor Medina [Picture from the California Office of Attorney General’s Website]
Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Greg Van Patten confirmed Medina worked in Covelo as a “worker at a marijuana/cannabis operation.” Van Patten described MCSO’s role in the search for Medina as providing “investigative assistance in this case over the last few days at the request of San Jose PD. Van Patten said MCSO’s investigations determined that “[Medina] supposedly left Covelo within the last couple of weeks to return to the Bay Area before being reported as missing.”
Victor Medina’s date of birth is 10/15/1990. He is Latino, 5’7’’, and weighs 170lbs. He has black hair, brown eyes. Distinguishable features include a tattoo on his right arm that says “Shark City” and a tattoo on his left that says “SJ”. His sister Maria Naranjo said the last clothes he was known to be wearing were “blue jeans, a light blue shirt with a white fox logo, black Nike shoes, and a gray hat with the red letter ‘C’.”
The San Jose Police department requests that “anyone with information is asked to call 911. Persons wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867.”
Picture of Nick Vigil [All photographs provided by Debbie Frisiello, Nick’s mother]
Nick Vigil, a 38-year-old man who lived in Fortuna, California, has been missing since late February. On the morning of the 25th, Vigil left his mother Debbie Frisiello’s Fortuna home without indicating where he was going and never came back.
Frisiello was told by a close friend of Vigil that he was supposed to go to his house that day to “pick up a check.” The friend grew concerned when he never arrived. Frisiello said her son’s last known movements on February 25 was a cell phone ping that indicated he was in the vicinity of Blue Lake’s Titlow Road.
Frisiello explained that her son was a regular at Blue Lake and Bear River Casinos. After surveillance footage and interviews were conducted, Frisiello maintained there was no indication Vigil visited either of those establishments the day he disappeared. According to Fortuna Police Department’s Lieutenant Matt Eberhardt and Detective Ryan Richardson, both casinos have been contacted and fully cooperated with the investigation.
Nick Vigil’s truck photographed on the evening it was found abandoned in the Weitchpec area.
The night Vigil went missing, Frisiello reports that the gray 2006 Ford F250 her son left driving that morning was discovered abandoned in Weitchpec, California by a forester working in the area. In hopes of finding the owner of the vehicle, the forester posted images of the abandoned truck on the Facebook Group “Weitchpec/Down River Community,” according to Frisiello (as of this time, that post is no longer accessible). From Frisiello’s understanding, the forester passed the vehicle several times over the following days and saw signs the vehicle was getting burglarized.
Another picture of Nick Virgil’s truck taken just days after it was found abandoned.
Fortuna Police Department’s Lieutenant Eberhardt described their agency collaborating with Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a thorough ground search of both Vigil’s property in Weitchepec and the site where law enforcement learned in mid-April that his vehicle had been abandoned Debbie Frisiello, Vigil’s mother, said her son’s property showed signs of being ransacked or broken into in her son’s absence.
According to Vigil’s mother, Debbie Frisiello, Local Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Activist Jesse Armstrong volunteered to assist her in navigating her son’s disappearance. “Jesse has helped me speak with the police and let me talk to him about my son,” she explained. Armstrong said his primary goal in working with any family of the missing is to “support them, do search and rescue, and bring their loved one home.”
Nick Vigil on an international trip. Debbie Frisiello, Nick’s mother, explained all photographs do not reflect the nearly 50 pounds of weight loss he had accomplished before going missing.
In the days before his disappearance, Vigil had been in Las Vegas for a mixed-martial-arts event and had won a significant amount of money, his mother explained. She remembered that he got home around 3:00 am on the night of February 24 and was out the door early the next morning.
Debbie Frisiello said that when she last saw her son, he was wearing “Nike black shoes, black, short socks, khaki pocketed shorts, a black belt, a white t-shirt, and a chocolate brown hoodie, black backpack with his laptop, his keys to everything.” She described her son as 6’ 1’’, weighing 250 lbs, and having brown eyes. She added that he shaves his head and doesn’t have a beard or a mustache.
Debbie Frisiello explained she is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to Nick’s return. “I think about him every day. He is my best friend. I just know somebody knows something about what happened that day,” she said.
Fortuna Police Department’s Lieutenant Eberhardt and Detective Richardson stated that they “could use the public’s assistance in the case.” They encouraged “anybody that has seen or heard from him, maybe somebody who saw him at a gas station, a store, potentially anyone that might know him” to reach out to their agency.
This side by side portrays the dramatic weight-loss Castagnetto experienced after being lost for 15 days [Picture on the right provided by Brett, the man who found Castagnetto]
Marc Castagnetto, a 57-year-old man who disappeared in the middle of a snowstorm after his off-road vehicle got stuck, remarkably returned to civilization on April 20 when he reappeared 25 miles northwest of where his journey began 15 days before. Castagnetto endured hunger, hallucinations, and frostbite during his perilous journey and survived to tell the tale.
In the early morning of Saturday, April 4, Castagnetto called a friend in Hydesville alerting him that his truck had gone down an embankment off Highway 36 and he was unable to extricate it. Castagnetto recalled he “wasn’t getting phone reception so I hiked up a hill.” When he got reception and called his friend, Castagnetto was directed to “to put my [GPS] location on, and just as I was going to put my location on, the phone died.” At that point, he said, “The snow was falling all at once.” He added, “It was weird. I lost direction, I had a short walk back to the truck but I passed it somehow.”
Castagnetto figured he “knew how to get” where he intended but never found his truck. He explained that his tracks “were covered up in the snow” and he “tried to find roads.” In the early days of his excursion, Castagnetto sought rural 8 Mile Road “to go to a buddy’s house” but never found it.
Castagnetto’s memory of his 15 days in the wilderness was not linear, more like a patchwork of significant moments. He said his sense of time was impaired. He said,“I didn’t think I was out there very long”. He acknowledged that as the days went by he “began to hallucinate and talk to people that were not there”. Castagnetto described his exhaustion-induced delirium recalling how “the rivers up there sound just like helicopters, just like two-stroke motors and helicopters. It was driving me insane. I was looking for helicopters and motorcycles the whole time I was out there. I was yelling ‘Stop!’”.
Despite the disorientation, Castagnetto said, “I put my mind to movement.” He remembered observing that it “was like I traveled over seven mountains” but conflictingly, he always thought 8-Mile Road was “just around the corner”. Castagnetto added that “I followed every river, and every river took me nowhere.”
Addressing how he met the demands of food, water, and shelter, Castagnetto maintained that all he “ate out there were these little yellow flowers that were sweet” and he said he stayed hydrated by “drinking out of creeks.”
Castagnetto said he became keenly aware that he was being “followed by a couple of mountain lions” and out of fear began “sleeping during the day and staying awake at night.” For protection, Castagnetto explained that when it got dark, he “hid out in the burrows of trees and I’d cover myself with lumber. I’d put grass down on the ground.” He described the lodging as “cold but safe”.
On particularly cold nights, he would “stuff grass inside my jacket beefing it up and make it warmer than it was”. He admitted that “sometimes there wasn’t grass, and I’d have weeds and ants all over and I’d be like ‘what the hell am I doing?’”
He recalled sleeping “in a couple of little trailers after coming across old grows that had shut down.” The night before emerging onto Titlow Road, he “stayed in a Uhaul truck with the windows broke in the front.” He said, “I slept in there and I put the floor mats in the windows to keep it warm”.
As the days went on, Castagnetto grew “anxious” because “I didn’t see or hear anybody.” At one point he saw helicopters that “were aggressively scanning the mountain across from me.” In his state of exhaustion, Castagnetto admitted, “I thought I was hallucinating.”
Castagnetto’s physical and mental state began to deteriorate. He reported losing significant weight and feeling weak. His feet began to blister. He described how “the pain started when I was walking through the water, my heel, the back of my shoe, was hitting the back of my foot. If I kept them moist they wouldn’t hurt so bad until I laid down and then they would dry up and then I’d go to get back up and they’d hurt again.”
Mentally, the isolation was getting to him. Castagnetto “would wake up talking to people that weren’t there” and he remembered seeing “many men and women talking on the side of a riverbank.” To assuage his addled mind, Castagnetto would remember his fondness for his truck, “morning coffee” and “burgers from Burger Bar.”
Castagnetto’s wanderings came to an abrupt end on the morning of April 20 when he began to see signs of civilization. Fatigued, he described lying down on the side of a hill, looking up, seeing three power lines, and thinking “I should follow those.”
These power lines brought him to the perimeter of a marijuana growing operation. A worker saw the tattered man and asked Castagnetto, “Where are you trying to go?” Castagnetto said he was looking for the Mad River. The worker, astonished, said, “You’re like 20 miles away, at 299, dude.”
The worker directed Castagnetto to Titlow Road telling him at the end of the road is the 299. Castagnetto continued walking and recalled how “the road was a steep grade” and in his weakened state he became tired and laid down on the roadside. Castagnetto said he woke up to the sound of chains” and saw “two vehicles coming down the road”.
Marc Castagnetto poses with Brett while enjoying food and drink after missing for 15 days [Photos provided by Brett]
A Humboldt County man who has requested to be referred to only as Brett was driving one of those vehicles. He quickly came to recognize Castagnetto: “Brett told me, ‘Hey, you’re the guy from the news! You’re that guy that people are looking for.”
After giving Castagnetto food and water, Brett “had his buddy take me to Blue Lake” where Castagnetto ate a hearty meal and met with Humboldt County Sheriff deputies and afterward his foot injuries were treated at Mad River Hospital.
Brett’s co-worker photographed the pair soon after stumbling upon Castagnetto. Castagnetto was wearing a light San Francisco Giants jacket and seemingly a pair of flannel pajama pants. Castagnetto explained that at the beginning of his journey he was wearing a “pair of blue jeans and a green thick hoodie on top of those.” Castagnetto had earlier forded a deep creek and “ended up leaving them there because I crossed the river and they were soaking wet and heavy.” Again, revealing the depths of Castagnetto’s delirium, he remembered that “in my mind, I thought I was going to be saved, so I left them at that beach, so all I had were my pajamas and a Giants jacket.”
Castagnetto did not describe himself as an avid outdoorsman. “I ride dirt bikes and four-wheel but I’m not a backpacker, hunter, or survivalist,” he said. The staff at Mad River Hospital told him that it was “a miracle I survived.” He attributed his survival to “keeping moving” and reminding himself that “I’ll find something tomorrow.” Castagnetto even described moments of epiphany in the backcountry. He said, “Sometimes I would look upward, to the trees, and the sky, and the mountains. I put my mind to how beautiful things were.”
Castagnetto grew emotional reflecting on Cassandra Overson, the members of Emerald Triangle Offroad, and search and rescue personnel that aided in his search: “This experience has totally given me a different perspective. I have realized how things could be taken away so easily. These people brought my life back in.”
Another picture of Marc Castagnetto and Brett on the day he was located after missing for 15 days.
Marc Castagnetto poses with Brett while enjoying food and drink after missing for 15 days [Pictures provides by Brett]
Around noon on April 20, 2020, a Humboldt County man who prefers we use only his first name, Brett, was driving on rural Titlow Road east of Blue Lake when he noticed a “disheveled” man on the roadside. Brett stopped his vehicle to inquire about the man’s condition and soon realized he was speaking with Marc Castagnetto, the 57-year-old man who disappeared in the middle of a snowstorm after his off-road vehicle got stuck 15 days before.
According to Brett, when he got out of the vehicle, the man seemed “shell-shocked” and revealed that “he had been lost for 12 days and hadn’t eaten anything.” Having provisions in his truck, Brett offered him food and water and probed deeper into the man’s story.
The man told Brett that he had been off-roading when his truck became stuck and was then caught in a snowstorm. Brett recognized the stranger’s tale “because I had read the story in Redheaded Blackbelt.” Not wanting to “feed him the story,” Brett listened intently for other cues he had remembered from the story he had read earlier. Brett became fully convinced he was speaking with Marc Castegnetto after the man described that after he slid off the road, he called his friend for help and then his phone died.
To Brett, it was clear Castagnetto had been through an ordeal. Brett described Castagnetto as “genuinely confused and lost.” Brett drew an improvised map in the dust on his truck in attempts to orient Castagnetto but he seemed “confused by it.”
In a sentimental moment, Brett said he told Castagnetto: “You know people really care for you, they were looking for you. He got emotional, and I did as well.”
Brett said that when Castagnetto was detailing the previous days, he said he had been “following power lines”. These landmarks had brought Castagnetto in Brett’s path because “PG&E transmission lines run near my property”. It is unclear Castagnetto’s route, but it is approximately 25 miles from Castagnetto’s abandoned vehicle to where Brett found him.
Castagnetto explained to Brett that he had been “drinking water out of streams” and he would “sleep during the day because he was afraid of the animals at night.” Brett observed that he looked “beat up pretty good” and Castagnetto’s ankles “were really terrible, swollen, scabbed, really reddish, from insects or a lot of scrapes from the brush.” Brett commented that he had seen pictures of Castagnetto in previous articles and upon finding him “it looked like he lost a lot of weight”.
Brett arranged to transport Castagnetto to Blue Lake to get him a meal and contact authorities. After eating, Castagnetto was taken to Blue Lake Rancheria where the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office was contacted. According to a press release from HCSO, “Castagnetto was found to have sustained injuries to his feet. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment and released.”
As to how exactly Castagnetto appeared after traveling 25 miles northeast of where he had ditched his vehicle in 15 days, the HCSO said: “Deputies are investigating the circumstances leading to Castagnetto’s re-appearance on Titlow Hill Road.”
Reflecting on the encounter, Brett remembered Castagnetto as a man “that was very lost, couldn’t understand where he was, [seemed] really hungry, and [was] really, really grateful for the assistance.”
Brett didn’t seem to think he’d done anything extraordinary by stopping to check on a disheveled stranger. If “I’m lost someday, I’d hope somebody would give me a ride,” he said.
Marc Castagnetto, the 57-year-old man who disappeared in the middle of a snowstorm after his off-road vehicle was stuck, has been found. According to a friend of Castagnetto, Cassandra Overson, a Humboldt County Sheriff deputy contacted her and told her that “Marc was found alive 14 miles off Highway 299 on Titlow Road.”
According to Overson, the deputy told her that Castagnetto“is a little banged up, looks pretty rough, and will be taken to the hospital.
The deputy confirmed that for the last 15 days Castagnetto has been walking in the woods and lost. At this point, we don’t have information on how he survived.
HCSO’s Public Information Officer Samantha Kargas confirmed that their agency, “received the report at about 1:30 pm that Castagnetto had been located alive in the area of Titlow Hill Road. He is being transported to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment for exposure.”
[Photographs of Alicia Launius provided by her mother, Meredith Schatz]
Alicia Launius, a 15-year-old girl from McKinleyville, left her home on foot Saturday night and never returned, according to her mother Meredith Schatz. Schatz described contacting Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office immediately, deputies patrolling the area her daughter is known to frequent, and not finding anything that evening.
On Saturday, Schatz said her daughter had been caught with a “burner phone” which she confiscated. That phone allowed Alicia access to the social media that her mother prohibited her from using. Alicia’s ill-will about the phone confiscation seemed to fade, the family went on a fishing trip, but upon return, Alicia began to “pack a bag”. Schatz inquired about her daughter’s plans, made it clear her daughter was not going anywhere, and Alicia then proceeded to leave the home on foot leaving phone and wallet behind.
Schatz’s boyfriend followed Alicia to the intersection of Killdeer Road and Mckinleyville Avenue. About 20 minutes after losing sight of Alicia, a resident of McKinleyville witnessed Alicia “pop out of the woods on Silverado Street and book it up Barnett towards the airport”.
After combing through the content of the burner phone, Schatz is concerned that her daughter might be meeting up with a male older than 18 years of age with a vehicle. Alicia’s close friends have been contacted and claim to have no knowledge of her current whereabouts, said Swartz.
Today, Schatz plans on contacting HCSO to get an update on their search for her daughter and walking around McKinleyville on foot searching for any signs of her daughter. We reached out to HCSO and have not received a response as of the time of this publication.
Alicia Launius is 5’3’’ and weighs 130 lbs. She has brown hair and eyes and was last seen wearing black workout leggings with mesh strip down the outside of the leg, Tan UGG Style boots, and a black hoodie with red script, possibly a McKinleyville High School logo.
Anyone who knows of Alicia’s whereabouts is encouraged to come forward. Contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 if you have any information.
4/19/2020 1:30 pm
***MISSING MCKINLEYVILLE TEEN HAS BEEN LOCATED***
According to Alicia’s mother Meredith Schatz, she was staying at a home overnight and after an adult in that home read about her disappearance, she reported her to law-enforcement
Three families of missing people across Northern California have received text messages demanding a ransom in exchange for their missing loved ones. All of these text messages have been sent from the same phone number, request similar amounts of money, and share common themes in their threats. In aggregate, it is clear that a scammer has set their sights on vulnerable Northern California families of the missing, exploiting their sorrow, and attempting to bilk them of cash.
All three of the recipients of the ransom scam received the text messages after they had posted about their missing family members on social media. These posts got spread far and wide on Facebook groups and pages associated with Northern California communities and missing people. All three of the recipients had posted their personal phone numbers to aid in communication.
A representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s San Francisco field office explained that if the scammer is identified as living out of state, these threats would constitute Interstate Threats as per 18 USC Section 876 C.
The first person to receive the ransom text messages was Alicia Audelo, the daughter of missing Weitchpec man Virgil Bussell Jr. On April 4, she received text messages claiming “i have Virgil” demanding $7,000 for his release. Audelo requested verification of the claims asking to speak to her father. The extortionist responded, “IF YOU DONT FUCKING CALM DOWN, I WILL MAKE YOUR DAD PAY FOR YOUR STUPIDITY WITH HIS LIFE”.
At this point in the text message exchange, a tactic emerges that can be seen across all three scam attempts: the extortionist says the missing person in their custody is “sick” attempting to create a sense of urgency to the situation. Audelo proves unswayed by the tactic and reasserts the need to speak with her father or see a picture before moving forward with any ransom. The scammer makes an excuse explaining why that would be difficult: “I keep him miles from where I live and I still have to drive over an hour to get the picture or let you talk to him on the phone.” The scammer tells Audelo that they are sending a “code” claiming “I am doing this so the cops wont have my number traced through the call.”
The scammer’s tone shifts and they begin claiming to have a daughter who “wanted a card for her birthday.” The scammer demands Audelo “Now you will have to go to the nearest store to pick up amazon gift card of $50 now and send the card to me here. once i give it to here, i will drive down and let you talk to him [Virgil] and have pictures of him too.”Audelo does not respond to this ploy and the scammer begins to plead: “That is the best I can do. My daughter needs the card to watch movies on Netflix. And without the card, she won’t let me leave her to get you proof.”
Exasperated and skeptical, Audelo replies saying “You’re sick!!! You dont have my Dad!!!! I dont give a fuck about your daughters bday. You’re pulling this sick fucking game to get $ FUCK YOU”. The final message from the scammer simply read, “fine, come for his body later today beside the fucking gas station. Bye”
Upon receiving the first message from the scammer, Audelo said that, “I was terrified. I wanted a picture of my dad and to hear his voice & I would have given them anything they wanted.” Her fear turned to anger: “after I got the text demanding I send the code to them I was beyond enraged.” Audelo became extremely skeptical of the scammer’s authenticity after they demanded the “code” be sent: She told us, “I knew it was fake when they sent a google verification code to my phone and demanded I send the code back. I knew if I did that my phone would be disabled and they would have had total access to my bank account, etc.”
The second and third verified occurrences of these ransom scams both occurred on Easter Sunday, April 12. Brandy Murray, the aunt of missing Yreka boy Maaron Delray Murray, has been looking for any sign of her nephew since Monday, April 6 when he was taken by his mother.
Around 6:00 in the evening, texts from the same phone number that had contacted Audelo claimed: “i have Maaron and his mom”. Similar to the tactics employed in the messages to Audelo, the scammer claims “he [Maaron] is sick and wants to talk to his dad… his mom is sick.” This time the scammer demands $8,000 threatening “I am not releasing that boy until I have a ransom.” The scammer adds that “the saddest news is that his mom died hours ago because she was high on drugs”. Murray, fearing the worst, pleads with the anonymous person to not hurt Maaron: “The boy has nothing to do with this.”
The scammer feigns mercy and says since it’s Easter “I will be kind” and “drop him off at the nearest hospital.” Murray is thankful and earnestly pleads, “Tell us where we can get him no questions asked.” The scammer’s mercy gave way to their true motive now demanding $2,000 claiming “I am being nice enough here” and threatening “Do not let me change my mind by probably making the poor boy pay for your stupidity. Do not act smart or I will kill him.”
The threats give way to a back and forth regarding Cash App in which the extortionist demands the money being sent using the app while Murray genuinely asks, “How do I cash app?” Similar to the text exchange with Audelo, the demands of $2,000 via Cash App pivot quickly to a simple $50.00 Amazon gift card. In a non-sequitur that is almost verbatim to the Audelo text exchange, the scammer write “I keep him miles away from where I live and I still have to drive over an 40 mins to get the picture or let you talk to him on the phone.”
When Brandy Murray first received these text messages about her missing nephew she, “couldn’t breathe. I didn’t know what to do. Totally freaking out inside. Desperation. My heart sank.” Murray only came to realize the messages were a scam when Yreaka Police Department contacted the family informing them the threats were a hoax.
An example of the text exchange between the extortionist and one of their intended victims, Ashley Hepburn. [Screenshots provided by Ashley Hepburn]
The third verified occurrence also took place around 6:00 pm on Easter Sunday, at the same time that Brandy Murray was being scammed. Ashley Hepburn, a Crescent City woman, had posted on social media that her daughter had gone missing on Saturday, April 11 accompanied by two male juveniles. On Sunday evening, Hepburn received text messages from the same number as Audelo and Murray claiming they had taken her daughter and one male into captivity and “now she is sick and unfortunately, the dude died hours ago.” Once again, like the Audelo and Murray exchanges, the scammer attempts to heighten the recipient’s concern by claiming their loved one as fallen ill.
The solution proposed by the scammer to reunite Hepburn with her daughter was, like the Audelo and Murray exchanges, $7,000. Hepburn sensed the scammer’s swindling and responded simply, “This is bullshit.” The scammer was clearly flustered by Hepburn’s tenacity and countered with threats like “come for her body later tonight” and “the innocent girl will pay for your rudeness with her life”.
Unfazed by the scammer’s growing hostility, Hepburn challenged them to “Prove u have my kid.” Hepburn’s doggedness in the face of a confidence artist attempting to exploit a mother’s love forced the scammer’s surrender: “The proof you will be getting will be the picture of her body after I kill her.”
Ashley Hepburn said that when she first received the text messages “My heart dropped and I felt like I was punched in the gut. My anxiety was so bad I was having chest pains”. Soon, though, it became clear that the texts were a hoax when they claimed to have Cody, one of the male juveniles her daughter had left with, and Hepburn knew that Cody had separated from her daughter and the other male on Saturday night returning home.
This scam is not new. In May 2019 Fox’s Cleveland affiliate reported on a family receiving threatening text messages demanding a ransom for their missing child. In July 2019, ABC’s Denver affiliate reported on a similar scam being perpetrated on the parents of a missing child in Aurora, Colorado. Just three weeks ago, a Tennessee mother was sent text messages demanding money for the life of her missing son.
Eric Brogdon, a Senior Security Researcher at TalkItUp with an expertise in malware and ransomware, told us that preying “on people’s hopes is common. You see it all the time on dating sites, get rich advertisements, work from home schemes, even hair dye [preys] on people’s hopes of looking young again. Receiving fake ransom notes should be expected.”
Brogdon suggested the airing of Netflix’s Murder Moutain documentary gave these sorts of scammers inspiration to target families in Northern California: “after seeing the documentary, scammers know that people go missing up here all the time.” Scammers can use forensic software where they “query for ‘missing people’ and get a list of all posts about missing people”, Brogdon explained.
Brogdon suggests that if the family of a missing person receives a text message containing a ransom, they “go to law enforcement. It is too hard to trust anybody in these circumstances other than law enforcement.”
Cold Case Mendocino 