Gone in a Blink
There are an estimated 8 billion people in the world. In the US, approximately 2,300 people go missing every day. While some of those cases may be of their own accord, others are because of something far more sinister. Gone in a Blink is a true crime podcast that dives head first into the most mysterious and terrifying missing person cases in existence. Hosts Heather and Danielle take a deep look into some of the most horrific missing person cases that will leave you on the edge of your seat and absolutely terrified at just how fast a person can be Gone in a Blink.
Gone in a Blink
Echoes of Fear: The Disappearance of Karlie Guse'
What if a seemingly ordinary night could change everything? That's the haunting question we grapple with as we explore the disappearance of Karlie Guse', a 16-year-old who vanished under baffling circumstances in October 2018. Her story starts with a night out that spiraled into paranoia and fear, possibly fueled by drugs. We recount the events leading up to her disappearance, from her impromptu attendance at a party to unsettling audio recordings that capture her terrified state. Was it just marijuana, or was something more sinister involved?
The investigation unfolds with a closer look at the theories surrounding Karlie's disappearance. Could she have wandered into the desert, or did she encounter danger on Highway 6? We dissect witness accounts and forensic data to unravel the mystery, all while considering the scrutiny faced by her stepmother, Melissa. Her online presence and public statements have drawn attention and speculation, highlighting the intense pressure that comes with such a tragic case. We navigate these complexities, examining the impact of public perception and the emotional toll on Karlie's family.
Finally, we delve into the broader implications of Karlie's case. The ongoing investigation, with its twists and turns, underscores the challenges faced by authorities and the community's unwavering determination to find answers. Despite extensive search efforts and potential leads, Karlie's fate remains a mystery. Join us as we reflect on the search for truth, the importance of empathy in times of crisis, and the pursuit of justice in the wake of Karlie Guse's disappearance.
Sources:
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/karlie-lain-guse
https://allthatsinteresting.com/karlie-guse
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/case-of-missing-california-teen-leads-to-nevada-2917690/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=823442408444023
https://www.foxnews.com/us/she-wanted-to-read-the-bible-and-panicked-something-was-going-to-kill-her-uncomfortable-questions-surround-the-case-of-missing-california-teen
Music:
Crime Trap by Muza Production
Nightmare Alley by Ribhav Agrawal
Don't Look Down the Basement by Gloele Fazzeri
Gone in a Blink is created by Heather Hicks and Danielle E.
Written and produced by Heather Hicks and hosted by Danielle E. and Heather Hicks.
Gone in a Blink theme: Crime Trap created and produced by Muzaproduction
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Thanks for joining us on the airwaves. And remember......Be Safe, Be Smart, and Try Not to Blink.
It goes without saying that drugs can make a person become someone they're not. They twist the mind into believing things that aren't true and see things that aren't there. Delusion and paranoia work together, forming a deadly cocktail to consume the brain, making you believe that the people who love you are now wanting to kill you. Nothing is the way it was, and everything you thought you knew no longer exists. You know it sounds crazy when you say it out loud, but you cannot convince your mind. It's not true. The paranoia comes and goes as you step into reality, just for a moment and just long enough to be reminded that you are safe and you are loved, only to be submerged into that dark, delusional world once again, the world where your friends are no longer your friends and people are not who they say they are.
Speaker 1:For 16-year-old Carly Gusset, this was the world she fell into on the night of October 12, 2018. A small gathering with friends that would end up pushing her out of reality and send her spinning into a series of delusional events that would ultimately end with her disappearance. This is the case of Carly Gusset, and this is Gone in a Blink is Gone in a Blink. Hey, true crime fans, I'm your host, heather, and I'm Danielle. Welcome to episode 28 of Gone in a Blink. I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. The weather here was really, really nice, although we didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as we normally do, so, needless to say, I had a lot of candy to get rid of, so I was literally handing it out by the handfuls to all these trick-or-treaters.
Speaker 2:Did you get many trick-or-treaters where you live? I'd say a little bit more than we had last year. I mean so maybe 10 trick-or-treaters versus, I think, only last year maybe like three.
Speaker 1:It was crazy. Yeah, we had a lot last season and so I really tried to prep. We bought, I think, four bags, maybe five bags of candy, and even though it was beautiful out, there just wasn't as many people with their porch lights on. So I don't know if that was part of why there weren't as many trick or treaters, or a lot more people are doing the trunk or treat now, so maybe a lot did that and you know that could have had an effect. But needless to say, I've got I still have way too much candy to get rid of because we weren't the only ones that were giving handfuls of candy out. So my kids go trick or treating and everywhere they go they're giving massive handfuls out because they're trying to get rid of their candy, and so now pretty much everything that I got rid of handing it out has come back to me through my kids. But it was fun none the less. So today's case is one out of Mono County, california. Today we are discussing the case of Carly Gousset, so if you're ready, let's jump right in.
Speaker 1:Carly Lane Gousset was born on May 13, 2002 to parents Lindsay Fairley and Zachary Gousset. Her parents divorced when she was just two years old and Carly had been living with her mother until Lindsay decided to make the move to Nevada. Carly wanted to stay with her friends and everything she knew about California. You know, she's 16 years old, she doesn't want to leave her school and all of her friends and everything she knew about California. You know, she's 16 years old, she doesn't want to leave her school and all of her friends, so it was then that she moved in with her dad and her stepmother, melissa in Bishop California. She grew up with her three brothers, kane, cole and Cody, and attended Bishop Union High School, where she was described as being very sweet and very quiet.
Speaker 1:On the evening of October 12, 2018, carly told her father, zach, and her stepmother, melissa, that she was going to attend a high school football game. Instead, carly went with her boyfriend, donald Arrowood III, to a small party where they hung out talking and laughing with friends. However, around 8 pm that night, things would take a very dark turn. Carly had been smoking marijuana with her boyfriend and some of her other friends at the party when suddenly she began acting very erratic. It was reported that, according to Donald, carly became frightened of the music and then even became frightened of him. She had fallen into a deep state of paranoia. She called her stepmother, melissa, and admitted that she had not in fact gone to the football game, like she had told her parents, but instead went to a party, and she begged Melissa to pick her up right away. Melissa jumped in her car and made her way to the house where the party was being held. However, when she got there, she learned that Carly had already fled the party on foot. Melissa drove around and eventually located Carly running down a dark, deserted road. She pulled up to her and Carly jumped into the back seat of the car immediately, and she was acting extremely paranoid even after Melissa drove away and tried to assure her that she was safe. So, according to Fox News, she reportedly told Melissa that she was scared and she changed seats within the vehicle multiple times, telling Melissa that she thought the car was going to kill her.
Speaker 1:Once they arrived at home, the paranoia continued, so much so that her father thought that the marijuana had been laced with something more powerful, because of the state of panic that she was in, but also because of how large her pupils were dilated.
Speaker 1:Carly had smoked marijuana with her boyfriend in the past, and just a few weeks before, she had a couple of adverse reactions to it, where she did become paranoid, telling friends that she was worried that someone was tracking her on her cell phone. However, she never had a reaction anything close to what she experienced on this night. So Carly's dad even decided to record their conversation with Carly in the hopes of playing it for her at a later time to show her just how paranoid the drug was making her, kind of like a tool to deter her from ever using it again type thing. The conversation was recorded for eight minutes and 45 seconds and shows how deeply paranoid Carly really was, and I have a portion of that conversation that I want to play for you. This is Carly talking to her stepmother and fearing that Melissa is going to kill her.
Speaker 3:This is the audio of Carly and it's in my pocket, so it's kind of loud and scuffly. Melissa, do you want to take a shower? It'll make you feel better. No, you're going to kill me. Carly, listen to what you just said to me, what you said. You're going to kill me. Don't kill me. Why would I kill you? That's preposterous. That's ridiculous. I'm eating the devil's lettuce. You're eating lettuce that I just freshly chopped, that I bought from the grocery store. I don't know why I'm just thinking that. Why do you think it's the devil's lettuce?
Speaker 2:Because I'm just thinking all these demonic stuff and I can't help it, you're okay, you wouldn't call them.
Speaker 3:What are you looking like then? You just said you wouldn't. Would you call them 911? If, for what reason? If there was an emergency? If there was an emergency, yes, I would always call 911. Yeah, what are you doing? What are?
Speaker 2:you doing.
Speaker 3:What are you doing?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I have to look at you.
Speaker 3:No, you don't, is it because I'm?
Speaker 2:ugly? No, you're not. You're beautiful, you're ugly.
Speaker 1:Okay, so in that clip clearly she's very upset, she's very distraught, she sounds very panicked, she is afraid. She's afraid for her life for some reason. I mean, obviously I think it's because of the drug, but she is. Her voice is very shaky and she's talking about talking about the devil's lettuce when her mom made a salad. So what is your take on that whole thing?
Speaker 2:She definitely sounds very paranoid. The devil's lettuce isn't that another term for weed? I feel like I've heard that before.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good point. That could be. I don't know. I don't know, I'm not as familiar with that terminology, but it's a good point. That could be. I don't know, I don't know, I'm not as familiar with that terminology, but it's a good point. But in this case she could have been referencing that. But her mom did make her a salad and she was afraid that the lettuce in that salad was the devil's lettuce. But she could also have been referring to the marijuana that she smoked earlier, although I feel like I'd have to agree with her dad. I feel like whatever caused this state of mind for her had to have been more than marijuana. I feel like maybe it was laced, and that happens a lot. That happens so much, especially, you know, I don't know maybe back in 2018. That was in 2018. You hear about a lot more now with fentanyl and things like that. I think you hear about that more now than you did back in 2018. But it doesn't mean that it wasn't still happening.
Speaker 2:Well, exactly that I mean. And a lot of places, weed is legalized now, and so there's a lot more people that are using that recreationally. I know some that use it daily. I guess that is such a scary thing In 2018, yes, you didn't hear about it as much, but I mean, of course it was still happening, but now even more so, that it would be a really scary thing to not know, like, where that weed had came from, and you have to be really cautious. I feel like Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, like I said, that was just a portion of the audio. So, just in case there were parts of that clip that were hard to hear or parts that were not played because it was an eight minute clip, that was the original was an eight minute clip. So Carly is heard saying I really messed up today. Melissa responds we all do things in life that we regret, drugs especially. I don't believe this was in the clip, though, but Carly later accuses Melissa of wanting to kill her, and Melissa asks her why she would want to kill her and tells her that that's preposterous. Carly then responds I'm just thinking all this demonic stuff, I can't help it.
Speaker 1:So Melissa and Zach try for quite some time to calm Carly down. Throughout the entire night she seems to be going in and out of her paranoid state and at times asking Melissa to paint her nails with her and then color and coloring books as well. She's in that happy, calm moment. Then she becomes paranoid again, making requests to pray and read the Bible. Melissa claims that she talked Carly into eating something, hoping that would help her snap out of this delusional state she was in. So she made Carly a salad, like I mentioned earlier. However, carly took a few bites before pushing it away, stating that it was made with the devil's lettuce.
Speaker 2:A couple of things with. That is interesting to me. But it could be nothing, and maybe it's just that the way I grew up, or whatever, I'm kind of surprised that she made her a salad. I mean, I don't know, maybe she's vegetarian or something, but I guess, to snap out of it, I would think of something a little hardier. Or, honestly, maybe I just got candy on the brain because of Halloween, but what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:I did think it was kind of unusual, because a salad is generally not very filling. Maybe Carly wasn't really that hungry to begin with. I don't know. I probably would have went with some toast or something like that, something very simple. But she went with a salad. Maybe they had that for dinner and she was just like grabbing something out of the fridge. Hey, we have leftover salad, eat something. I get eating something. But I caught that too.
Speaker 1:So Carly then asked Melissa if she would lay down with her in her bedroom. Carly was tired and she definitely needed to get some rest, but she was terrified to be by herself. She was absolutely terrified to leave Melissa's side. So Melissa claims that she laid in Carly's room. Initially, melissa stated that she had checked on Carly around 5.45 am, indicating that at some point in the night she had left Carly's room. She stated that Carly was still in her room at that time. But when she checked on her again at 7.15 am, carly's room, she stated that Carly was still in her room at that time, but when she checked on her again at 7 15 am, carly was gone. She later recanted her story and said that she had spent the entire night in Carly's room with her but had fallen asleep and when she woke up around 7 15, carly was no longer in her bed. Now this change in story although I don't feel that it is a major change in her timeline online sleuths have really tore into her over this and we will introduce some of those theories in a little while.
Speaker 1:To search the entire house, they noticed that Carly's cell phone was sitting on the kitchen counter, which they thought was pretty odd. They then began to search the neighborhood. After searching the neighborhood for roughly two hours, zach called Carly's mother Lindsay to tell her what happened. He then filed a missing persons report with the Mono County Sheriff's Department. Carly's mother Lindsay recalled on an episode of Fox News the day her ex-husband informed her that Carly was missing. She is quoted as saying quote at 9.35 am on October 13th, I was notified by her father, my ex-husband, that she was gone. Gone to me is a huge red flag and it has never set easily with me unquote. So Carly's mother has her own theories of what may have happened to her daughter and we will get into those theories in just a minute.
Speaker 1:So soon after Zach filed a missing persons report, investigators were quick to respond. They arrived at the Gusei's home and immediately began searching for Carly. Upon speaking with neighbors, they discovered that a few of them had actually seen Carly early that morning. The first witness, a man by the name of Richard Eddy, lived near the Guse home and reported seeing Carly early that morning. Around daybreak she had been walking down the street with a white piece of paper in her hand and looking up at the sky.
Speaker 1:Another witness, a school teacher by the name of Kenneth Dutton, was in his driveway when he saw Carly walking toward Highway 6 with the piece of paper in her hand. It was later discovered that the piece of paper she may have been holding was regarding information of a counselor that Carly regularly saw, and this can open the doors to a lot of theory and speculation of where Carly may have been heading that morning while still in her paranoid state of mind, one of which could have been that she was heading to the counselor. I mean, if she was seeing a counselor regularly and she had what may have been a piece of paper with that information on it and she knew that something wasn't right. And she did know something wasn't right because she made the comment that she keeps thinking all this demonic stuff and she can't help it. So what if she was trying to make her way?
Speaker 2:there. That definitely sounds like a possibility, and just for the impulsiveness that sometimes paranoia brings on. So if she was still in that paranoid state, not necessarily waiting for her parents to get up or however to take her, but that she got the information and she was going there now, yes, I definitely think that is a very plausible explanation of where she could have been trying to head.
Speaker 1:So the third and final witness claims they saw her standing near some sagebrush next to Highway 6. This would be the spot also where scent dogs had been searching before losing her scent. So there are a lot of possible theories about what may have happened to Carly, including from her bio mom, Lindsay Fairley. As I mentioned earlier, she was pretty uneasy about the way Carly's father, Zach, called her and told her Carly was quote unquote gone and really the fact he used the word gone instead of missing.
Speaker 2:That is a bit of a red flag to me and I guess, to backtrack a little bit, it could have just been the state that he was in too, to not really choosing his words very appropriately. But to call a mother and to say that your child is gone, I mean, if I was her mom I'd be horrified to hear that. I would think death like that she died.
Speaker 1:Well, and I agree, gone and missing to me are two different things. Missing to me, anyway, not everybody is different, but to me, missing means we can't find someone or something, and that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't find them, just means they are missing. And gone to me means it's gone, it's done, it is never coming back. And I agree, I don't want to point the finger, because until you're in that position, you can't really say what. I don't think people are really watching their terminology in a situation like that. Now, I will say that there are words that I think people who are in that kind of situation would avoid, and I will get to that too.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of picking apart by online sleuths and word analyzation of what Melissa Guse uses, and while I agree with some of it, again you can't really base someone's guilt or lack of guilt for something this major based on the terminology they use. Now, there are exceptions to that, for sure, but Zach calls Lindsay and says that their daughter is gone, and Lindsay suggested back in 2019 on the Dr Phil show that she thinks Carly may have died of a drug overdose and that Zach and Melissa hid the evidence of that. Those are really strong accusations to suggest and without knowing the family, I'm not sure why they would go as far as to cover that up and hide your body or hide her body and risk going to prison if it was something like an accidental overdose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, and what we know so far, that doesn't sound like that would be the case. A big sign that I don't believe personally that that would be the case is that there was witnesses that saw her the next morning. By that time some of that, especially weed based, would have been out of the system. Now, granted, we know that there was probably still that paranoia state and so something was still there, but if she had overdosed, I don't think that there would be witnesses that actually saw her around.
Speaker 1:No, and her mother, lindsay Fairley, had made the comment on the Dr Phil show that she didn't even think that her daughter made it out of the house alive, and that goes right back to what you just said. There were three witnesses that saw her early that next morning. So with that and the fact that cell phone data had in fact corroborated the accounts of both zach and melissa, as well as donald arrowwood and his his account of what happened, everything checked out, a search of the goose home, as well as forensic investigations of Carly's cell phone and personal computer, did not show any incriminating evidence. Another very plausible theory is that Carly wandered off into the desert and may have been picked up by someone. She was walking along the road as scent dogs picked up her scent along parts of Highway 6 before they lost her scent, so that is a likely possibility. Police had also picked out what they believed to be Carly's footprints on the side of the road. However, those footprints did not lead to any certain path.
Speaker 1:Highway 6 is a very remote desert highway that is considered a very prominent US route that stretches from California to Massachusetts and goes through 14 US states. It is also a highway where many truck drivers have early morning routes and have been reported to frequent that highway in the early morning hours. And Chalfant Valley, for geographical purposes, is a rural mountain town tucked in between the Inyo National Forest and about 30 miles south of the Nevada border. It's approximately a five-hour drive north from Las Vegas and a four-hour drive south of Reno. Another theory is that maybe Carly walked off into the desert and with the freezing temperatures early in the morning and the hot desert temperatures in the afternoon, it was thought that she could have died from exposure.
Speaker 1:I don't really place a lot on that theory as much. I mean I guess it's possible, it is possible. But I feel like they did find tracks along the side of the road that authorities believe are Carly's. And if you have kind of a remote highway like that that stretches over 14 states, of course it's going to be frequented by truck drivers. May or may not have been a truck driver that could have picked her up. It could have been anybody that picked her up, but if she was, she was last seen near Highway 6 and just kind of piecing more theory together but say she was trying to go to the counselor and she thought she needed to walk along the highway to get to where this counselor's office was and you're in the middle of the desert. You're opening yourself up for so much. I mean you've got anybody and everybody driving by, and so all it would take is for the wrong person to drive by and see a young teenage girl walking by herself in the early morning hours. It looks kind of strange.
Speaker 2:I would definitely agree. Now, granted, I don't live in the desert or haven't spent a lot of time there, I could see the exposure theory first, just especially in the state she was in, that I mean be heading that way towards the counselors but then to get lost and then for something like that exposure theory. But then I also think what's a little more plausible is, as you had said, that somebody saw her walking, and if it was early in the morning, who knows who could have drove by, and I'm sure that the police have already thought about that.
Speaker 1:Where those footprints stop, that's probably likely the area she was picked up at yeah, the footprints, like I said, didn't lead to any viable path whatsoever, so they kind of just stopped the dogs, they followed the scent and then that just stopped around the same area, which makes it that much more likely that she was picked up. Another theory that has been sweeping the internet, and seems to be that of a lot of true crime sleuths, is that Melissa had something to do with Carly's disappearance. Web sleuths have theorized that Melissa may have accidentally killed Carly by mishandling the way she handled Carly's adverse reaction to an unknown substance, and that it may have killed her and Melissa could have covered that up. This theory was based on Melissa having changed her story about checking on Carly in the morning hour of 5 45 am and then she was gone by 7 15 am, versus her other story of having slept in Carly's room with her all night. Sleuths are wondering why her story changed. Okay, so Melissa did mention in interviews that she didn't take Carly to the hospital because she had only smoked marijuana and she didn't see any reason to take her to the hospital for that. But as soon as Melissa arrived home with Carly, zach had mentioned that they immediately believed that the marijuana had been laced with something else, that may have been a good reason to take her to the hospital, because you don't know what the marijuana could have been laced with.
Speaker 1:However, I personally believe that they thought whatever it was was going to wear off and that they could take care of her until then. So I definitely think that it would have warranted a visit to the hospital the way she was acting, if there is even a hint that your teenager had something more in her system, that in this case she smoked marijuana. Yes, I get it. You probably don't need to take her to the hospital just because she smoked marijuana and now she's paranoid. But her level of paranoid went over the top and you're suspecting now that the marijuana was laced with something else, so that could have been fentanyl. That could have been something incredibly deadly that what if she had tried to go to sleep that night and didn't wake up? So I definitely think that that wasn't a smart move not taking her to the hospital, but I don't know, in my opinion, to suggest that maybe they mishandled it. Then Carly died, then they covered it up. You're still discounting the fact that there were three witnesses that saw her the following morning walking around the neighborhood.
Speaker 2:Well, and we don't know right that they've ever dealt with anything like that before. So it sounds like that right that they thought that she had weed in her system and that it would just wear off. Where I I differ a little bit, is that any sign of any kind of paranoia, that I think that they should have taken her to the hospital to make sure and honestly, probably at this they wish that as well. So they probably did mishandle it a little bit, quite honestly, and I'm sure they wish that they would have handled it differently. I don't know if it led to her death. I don't feel like that. We're seeing the evidence of that. What I do feel like that we're showing the evidence of, especially with those three witnesses seeing her that she did leave and then probably got picked up. Now, okay, the stepmom. I guess we do have to ask as well as you know why did the stepmom lie about being in there all night versus just checking on her?
Speaker 1:well, I question too, because obviously there is a difference between being in there all night long.
Speaker 1:I think what I have found doesn't really explain that necessarily, but I guess her normal routine in the mornings was at 5.45, she would get up and she would go to the rooms and check on Carly and her siblings. So I don't know if it was just in this state of shock and panic herself that she was stating her normal routine, and then maybe she was like wait a minute, no, I was in Carly's room all night that night. I feel like it's a discrepancy and normally when stories change that's a giant red flag, because if you're telling the truth, your story is not going to change. However, I don't feel personally that it's that big of a discrepancy to say, okay, there's this shift in the story, so now you're saying that the stepmother, she killed Carly or she mishandled it. Actually it's not. It's not not all on her really. I mean, the father was there too. So to me you're gonna have to give me a bigger discrepancy in the story than something like that.
Speaker 2:No, I would totally agree with that. Yes, the story changed, but it wasn't that big of a discrepancy. And so I mean, exactly if it was her routine to check on everybody about 545, who knows what could have happened with another child, or however, I think that if they're starting to change this story and there's a big discrepancy, then then yes, that that can be a red flag, but something like this staying in the room with her all night versus checking on her that it's not that significant.
Speaker 1:Now in both stories that she did tell, one thing that was consistent in both is that at 7.15, carly was gone. So in the first story she said that she came back in the room at 7.15 and noticed Carly was gone. So in the first story she said that she came back in the room at 7.15 and noticed Carly was gone, and in the second one she had fallen asleep in Carly's room and woke up at 7.15 and Carly was gone.
Speaker 2:I just thought about this. I'm really surprised they didn't have like a ring camera, the ring doorbell that would have recorded, actually when Carly left, because a lot of people have those now.
Speaker 1:A lot of people do have those and as far as back in 2018, I don't know if a lot of people had, I think a lot of people probably still did. Maybe not as many people that have them now, but they didn't have anything like that.
Speaker 2:But if not them, someone in the neighborhood, anything like that. But if not them, someone in the neighborhood. So I mean, they were still pretty popular in 2018. So you would have thought that somebody's ring camera would have saw her walking around. Even now not everybody has one, but I bet that there's. You know enough people in the neighborhood where she lives that at least one to two people would have had him in 2018. Where?
Speaker 1:she lives, that at least one to two people would have had him in 2018. You would think so, but they have not mentioned reports of anyone catching her on a ring camera, and I know that there wasn't any kind of cameras on the exterior of the Gusei home. So that's a good point, though, that no one got her on camera. So, really, you only have these witnesses and their statements to go on. Melissa did, however, post a Facebook Live video shortly after Carly's disappearance, urging people to help in the search for Carly. This video has been torn apart and completely analyzed, and this is what I was talking about. So it has literally been analyzed word for word by people online who found the video oddly suspicious and feel that Melissa has something to hide, and I'm going to play you some of Melissa's Facebook live video for you right now.
Speaker 3:Hey, team Carly. This is Melissa Guse. Today is day nine of Carly being missing. I'm on here to share more info. I just spoke to the sergeant and they are at a dead end about the events. Just lots of questions that I haven't been allowed to talk about because of the investigation, and so I'm here to tell you guys all about it.
Speaker 3:Friday night I picked up Carly from town. She was supposed to be at a football game. She had lied to me and told me that she was at the football game and when she called me she said she was sorry, I was with friends. I'm sorry, can you please just come get me? So I drove to town and picked her up. She was by herself and when she got in the car I said what's going on? Where have you been? I'm with friends. I got high. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Please don't be mad at me, I'm sorry and I'm like smoke marijuana. Like okay, she was very paranoid, she was scared and she hadn't smoked weed in a month and, being a mother, I wasn't going to take her to the hospital. She's high on marijuana. Why would I? I just it didn't cross my mind. She, she was fine.
Speaker 3:We talked the whole way home. I brought her home, we spent the night. When we got home she was still paranoid, almost like extremely stoned. And we got home and then I had her eat. She had a salad, I made her eat a power bar and she was just very paranoid and she wanted me to spend the night with her.
Speaker 3:So, um, her brothers were awake, and Zach was awake, and we hung out and she ate. And then she was like, can we go to bed? And I was like, yeah, and she's like, well, can you come sleep with me? And I was like, yeah, sure, why not? Whatever, I'll lay with you watch a movie. And so we hung out for a little bit in the kitchen, talked a bunch, and then her brothers went to bed.
Speaker 3:And so then I went to bed with her and then we got up. I had to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, wash my face. She was by my side the whole time. She didn't want to leave my side. Yes, she was paranoid and still just not thinking. Well, maybe she did smoke something that was bad, maybe somebody gave her something, I don't know. And so we ended up back in the living room with her brothers for a little bit, watched a movie and she was just still kind of paranoid.
Speaker 3:And then we went back to bed and I spent the whole night with her. I mean, I was awake and then I dozed off and she's just there. She was just hanging out, she was awake, she wanted to paint my toenails, she wanted to color, she wanted to do a whole lot of stuff, and so I was, I was up, and then I would doze off and I was up and I would doze off and she was there the whole time and I was really scared to put this out there, because so many people are judgmental and I don't want her story to die. And I was so scared just to say anything. And the investigators were like you can't talk to anybody about this because the FBI was involved and if anybody finds out or they get spooked or somebody tips somebody off, then she could be right here and then she could be gone. So this is hard right now because I just I don't want people to judge. Her Could smoke pot all the time.
Speaker 3:And so around 5.40, 48 was my last text in the morning and I fell back asleep and then that's when I woke up and she was gone and I wish I wouldn't have fallen asleep, and I wish I wouldn't have fallen asleep, but you guys had to know the details and I was allowed to share them, so I wanted to put them out there because obviously the trolls are roaming and, um, I'm not a liar and I don't have anything to hide and I'm it's okay to tell you guys. You guys all want her home. Who cares what she did? And she's not just you're disoriented anymore. She is, and I said that in the beginning, not even because the way she was acting, but because if she's been out in the desert for three hours, yeah, she's gonna be disoriented. She didn't take anything with her.
Speaker 3:The people that Sarah said she only had white t-shirt and gray pants and that was it. She didn't have a water bottle, I don't. I don't know what she's got and if she's out in the desert, it's hot here and those of us that live here, you're dehydrated, you're thirsty, you're hungry. What if she fell and hit her head and that? So I woke up, it was was like 7, 18. And I said because I was in her bed and her door was open all night, so I couldn't have heard that.
Speaker 3:And I was in her bed and she was just gone and I immediately got up and I looked around the house and I'm just going, where is she? I just don't know where the hell is she? And I go, and I told Zach and I said Carly's not in her bed and so just started to panic and got in our cars and just started driving all around. I drove my Corolla out in the boonies over boulders and Zach took the truck and he took the binoculars and then, you know, two hour point, two hours was the point where something's wrong. And then for the neighbor to say he saw her at 6 30 in the morning is what he told me, but he's older. And then the three confirmed people two are neighbors that live up here and the one other person that saw her was a wooder driving by and just saw her standing inside the barbed wire fence.
Speaker 3:So, and the timeline that they say, I was like how could I have missed her? You know she was just right there, just something's wrong. She was just right there, just something's wrong. Somebody took her. There's just something and I wanted to put it out there and I want you guys all to know. And so if you needed to know all that, great. And if you didn't care. Great, because I don't care. I just want her. We want her home and thank you for the continued support and and let's bring Carly home. And thank you all again.
Speaker 1:So basically, okay, melissa is fumbling around and she is doing a typical Facebook Live video, okay, and she's asking for people to help get involved in the search. I don't know how people expect someone to act if they're on a Facebook Live and their stepdaughter is missing. She's gonna be nervous. She's gonna be nervous. There were comments made online that she's not looking directly in the camera, she's looking around. Well, anyone I've ever seen do a Facebook Live video no one is just looking directly in the camera. She's looking around. Well, anyone I've ever seen do a Facebook live video no one is just looking directly in the camera the whole time. People are always looking around. People record themselves sitting in a car doing Facebook lives. They're constantly looking around. Obviously, most times they're driving or they may be you know wherever it is. No one is just staring directly at the camera the whole time.
Speaker 1:Now, take into account the fact that your stepdaughter's missing. You're really not going to be just staring into the phone as you're talking about her going missing. So I felt like they were kind of ripping her apart about that and they're analyzing different words that she's using. I think she had made the comment at one point that investigators are having no luck finding Carly and that something to the effect of the leads or whatever it was has turned up dead. She said the word dead in her sentence and they're like I can't believe she used the word dead. Your daughter is missing and I get. In most cases you're going to avoid words that talk about death or talk about, in this case, the word dead. You're going to be careful not to use certain words. You're going to kind of tiptoe around those words because the thought of that being the outcome is unimaginable, but, at the same time, using that word doesn't make her a killer.
Speaker 2:I would agree that that doesn't make her a killer and, yes, that she probably was pretty nervous on that. I guess what does strike me as odd is that now you have the dad that had called biological mother saying she's gone, and I thought, okay, that guys, they're not going to really choose their words, Guy, girl, whatever, I mean in the heat of the moment. But then now for the stepmom to be saying using words like dead, and again I mean I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt that probably she didn't mean to use those choice of words, but it is a little coincidental that you know she did say that after what her husband had said.
Speaker 1:Well, I do agree and I definitely don't detest that they are using, well, very poor choice of words and these are not words that I would use. These are not words that most people would use, I think, in this situation. So it really is difficult and I can't entirely say I don't blame the online sleuths for really digging into this, because Carly has still never been found and so it is important to look at all angles to look at the father, to look at the stepmother. The stepmother was the last one to see her alive and I don't know how thorough the investigation was into her parents. Sometimes they rule that out a little too quickly. So while I definitely think that she probably didn't mean to use those words, and I'm not seeing anything suspicious like the online sleuths are seeing, it doesn't necessarily mean that they shouldn't be analyzing this, because in past cases, online web sleuths have solved cases, so I think that they are important to an investigation, to give the Gabby Petito investigation into her death and how it was an online sleuth that ended up spotting her van, driven by Brian Laundrie, and they were able to recover her body. So, but then you have other situations where I think online sleuths can do more harm than good, and they can actually become so involved in an investigation that they hinder the investigation. They get in the way of the police. But I think everyone should draw their own conclusion.
Speaker 1:While I'm not really on board with what the online sleuths are saying in this situation, I don't see anything crazy suspicious about Melissa Guse, necessarily, from everything I found. Everyone has their own opinion, so I would like to hear everyone else's opinion, though, on this case and which way you kind of kind of shift in your in your theories. But another claim that caused people to believe Melissa had something to do with Carly's disappearance was that Melissa allegedly had detail work done to her car right after Carly went missing. That produced the theory that Melissa may have accidentally hit Carly with her car. I didn't find a whole lot. I really didn't find anything than strictly the accusation made by online people that that even happened.
Speaker 2:So I have nothing to back that up, but you're saying the theory is that she hit her with her car the night she went to pick her up. So all the other story as far as the witnesses, the you know making her a salad or the devil's lettuce, and the footprints that the police, to my understanding, saw, were all made up in this theory.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's just it. That's what I'm saying. Some of the theories yeah, I could see it being a very plausible theory based on what we already know. That is just one more theory that I would toss out the window, because then you have to discount the recording of Carly, which, okay, someone could say, hey, who knows that that was a recording of her that night. That could have been a recording of her from a different night, or somebody could argue that. But we go right back to. You have to discount the witnesses. So are you saying that three witnesses, three separate witnesses who were neighbors in the vicinity of where the Guse house is, that they made this up and, according to authorities, these are very credible witnesses. So that's just another theory that I would toss out the window and, like I said, I don't have anything to back that up. That she did have work done. But even if she did, you have to discredit the all three of the witnesses.
Speaker 2:Well, exactly, and I mean the police are involved and they're gathering evidence at this point, so I think they would have figured that out. What it's sounding like is that there was already an appointment made for the detail and unfortunately, coincidentally, it just happened to be so close to when she went missing.
Speaker 1:And if that even really happened, there's nothing to back that up, so that could just strictly be some kind of accusation. So other theories point to Carly's boyfriend, donald. It has been stated, though not confirmed, that Carly had called a suicide hotline a few weeks before her disappearance and that her and Donald had a seemingly tumultuous relationship. According to reports on the Charlie Project, carly texted her boyfriend at 10.15 pm the night before she went missing to tell him that the marijuana she had smoked had been laced with something. This was her final text to her boyfriend.
Speaker 1:Online sleuths have pointed out Donald's behavior the night. Carly went into extreme panic, deeming his behavior suspicious. Donald allegedly posted on Facebook the following quote no, me and Carly were walking almost to my house and she got so damn scared it was scaring me. So I looked her in the eyes and said Carly, baby, you are safe with me. And then she got this horrified look on her face and started screaming my name. So I wrapped my arms around her to hold her and she bit my side and was pushing me away. So I let go and she told me not to follow her and to go home. So I stayed in the middle of the street for like 20. I wanted to chase after my baby, but it was pitch black and I didn't want to scare her anymore.
Speaker 1:To this day, I wish I had chased after her. I wish we had made it to my house. I wish none of this had happened. Unquote. Donald is also reported as posting that there were never any. There was never any party that night and that Carly and him were at a friend's house smoking weed. Not an actual party. Okay, everyone can draw their own conclusion here, but I personally don't see anything suspicious about Donald's post, and whether people are calling the get-together a party or a few friends hanging out listening to music and smoking marijuana is irrelevant to me personally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it sounds like. That would explain why Melissa didn't find her at the party. He was with her when they left.
Speaker 1:Well, he was with her when they left. They were. I guess they were walking, but there was no mention. When Melissa found her she was well. I guess she had already ran away from Donald and that's why Melissa found her running down the street, a dark street like that. So, and it corroborates with Donald's story, I don't know. I don't find that Facebook post suspicious. I find him posting on Facebook what happened that night and I'm sure it freaked him out. He said in the post it freaked him out. I think we're reaching at straws.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and I mean, if he was smoking weed that night too, if he was smoking from the same that she was that, who knows what effect it had on him as well. Now everybody deals with that or reacts differently to weed or whatever it was laced with, so it doesn't sound like he had had such a severe episode, but all the same, I mean, we know that he was smoking weed as well, so that's going to alter his thinking also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and probably scare him even more than it would have been if he was completely sober when his girlfriend is in such hysterics like that.
Speaker 1:So, in an article published on October 8th 2023 by the Review Journal, five years after Carly's disappearance, authorities are searching for clues in Tenopa, nevada, with the Mono County Sheriff's Department stated that in March 2021, he received a call from a witness who claims to have seen Carly at a party in Tanopa, which is approximately 100 miles from Carly's home in Chalfant Valley.
Speaker 1:Police are taking this lead very seriously and Detective Pelichowski stated that authorities located a vehicle that may have been used to pick Carly up from alongside Highway 6 and take her to Tanopa. This lead is being investigated by the Mono County Sheriff's Department as well as the FBI, so it sounds more likely that this is kind of what happened, what we were talking about earlier. She wandered off to the highway and somebody picked her up, and if they have found a car that they believe that was left on the side of the road, they've got their reasons as to why they are tying it that car to her. Whether they found something in the car of hers or I'm just speculating because they're not releasing that. You know there could be. There's got to be something with that car, tying that car to her to make them think that that was a car used to pick up Carly.
Speaker 2:Yes, obviously, but that many years later and still nothing, though I don't know, and for them not to publicly come out with more information. It sounds like it is suspicious, but not enough to totally say that this was what happened.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't think they're going to come out and give that information strictly because it's an active investigation and they don't want to give information out that only the suspect would know. Know they give all that information out to everyone. Well then, that's, that's making it even harder to narrow down a suspect. But there's something with that car, whether, like I said, it's, it's something that was left in there or it was dna evidence of hers found in there, for whatever reason, or maybe he's tied to some other kidnapping and they're thinking, hmm, this is very likely that it could have been the same situation. But it sounds like that is kind of the theory that they're going with too, based on all the evidence that they have and we don't know all the evidence that they have. But so when Carly was reported missing, there were no Amber Alerts issued because of the fact that there was no immediate indication of abduction or physical description of a car. There were no outside cameras installed at the Guse home and no gas stations or other markers with cameras in the vicinity or other markers with cameras in the vicinity. Helicopters, search dogs, horseback searchers and off-road vehicles were all involved in searching the area filled with desert and rugged terrain. However, the searches conducted have turned up nothing.
Speaker 1:Carly Langusse was 16 years old at the time of her disappearance and would be 22 years old today. Carly is a white female with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. She is 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighs approximately 110 pounds. She has a piercing in her left nostril. Carly was last seen by her family at her residence in the White Mountain Estates area of Chalfant Valley in Mono County, california. She was last seen by witnesses walking south, approximately 30 yards east of Highway 6 and 100 yards south of Sierra View Road, on the morning of October 13, 2018. She was likely wearing gray sweatpants, a white t-shirt and Vans shoes.
Speaker 1:The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the whereabouts of Carly Gusset. If you have any information of the location of Carly Gusset, please call the Mono County Sheriff's Department at area code 760-932-7549, option 7, or the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children at 800-THE-LOST, that's 800-843-5678. Thank you for listening to another episode of Gone in a Blink. If you like our show, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and, as always, we love it. When you follow us on any of our social media sites, you can find us on Facebook at Gone in a Blink Podcast, or on Instagram at Gone in a Blink Pod, and if you have an idea for a show or if you have a loved one who is missing and would like us to cover their case, please drop us an email at goneinablinkpod at gmailcom. And remember, be safe, be smart and try not to blink.
