Going West: True Crime - Karlie Guse // 239

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

In October of 2018, a 16-year-old girl disappeared from California after a party. Her stepmother picked her up from the side of the road after finding her running in the dark. When they got home, they went to sleep side by side for safety since she was agitated, but the next morning, she was gone. Blame began to shift within the family as inconsistencies in the story emerged, and all the family’s dirty laundry surfaced. This is the story of Karlie Guse. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/missing-in-america/sixteen-year-old-karlie-gus-missing-after-vanishing-california-home-n923066 2. FBI: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/karlie-lain-guse 3. Dr. Phil episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMcsCvOjT8&t=14s 4. Crime Online: https://www.crimeonline.com/2021/03/01/karlie-guse-dad-of-missing-california-teen-girl-arrested-for-corporal-injury-to-a-spouse-police/ 5. Stories of the Unsolved: https://storiesoftheunsolved.com/2020/08/05/the-disappearance-of-karlie-guse/ 6. SFGate: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Karlie-Lain-Guse-Chalfant-Valley-15650908.php#:~:text=%E2%80%9CShe%20hadn't%20smoked%20in,street%2C%20away%20from%20the%20party. 7. Interview with Kole Guse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Gus18kgrc 8. 911 calls regarding Zac Guse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdNhb4E-xHE 9. Kate Yup's channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KateYup 10. Kate Yup conspiracy TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR5vyRr9/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Teehan. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, thank you so much for tuning in to yet another episode of Going West. And big thank you to the wonderful listeners who sent in today's case. There is five of you, five people recommend this case, but I hadn't heard about it before. So thank you so much to Claire, Tommy, Tori, Natalie and Brandon. This case is absolutely wild. Can't believe I hadn't heard of it before. In this case, actually involves another case that a lot of you guys have asked us to cover.

So kind of strange that there's a connection there as well. Yeah, absolutely. So shall we? Yeah, all right. This is episode 239 of Going West. So let's get into it. way. In October of 2018, a 16-year-old girl disappeared from California after a party. Her stepmother picked her up from the side of the road after finding her running in the dark.

And when they got home, they went to sleep side by side for safety since she seemed so agitated. But the next morning, she was gone. Blame began to shift within the family as inconsistencies in the story emerged, and all the family's dirty laundry surfaced. This is the story of Carly Goussai.

Carly Lane, Goosey, was born on May 13th, 2002, in Bishop, California to parents Lindsay and Zach Goosey. Bishop is a small city of about 3,700 people located in the Southern California High Desert, just north of Death Valley National Park, and about an hour from the border of Nevada. The area is known for its soaring temperatures. In fact, in early September of this year, so 2022, Death Valley hit the highest temperature ever recorded for a September day. 127 degrees Fahrenheit or almost 53 degrees Celsius, which is hot.

Yeah, I've heard that Death Valley is one of the hottest places on the planet. Yes. And the strip of desert where Bishop Sitz is surrounded on both sides by the Inno National Forest and the Nature-rich region also encompasses the Sequoia, King's Canyon, and Yellowstone National Parks. But back to the Guse family. So Zach and Lindsay had another child before Carly, an older brother named Cain. But when Carly was about two years old, the couple split up. But for the first three years or so, Carly and Cain lived with their mom Lindsay in their

hometown of Bishop California. But when Lindsay decided to relocate to Las Vegas, which is about a four-hour drive away from Bishop and Zach remarried, the siblings went to live with Zach and their new stepmom Melissa in Bishop, so they didn't have to move, which must have been great. Melissa and Zach added two sons to the crew, Carly's little brothers, Cole and Cody. And Melissa remembers Carly excitedly stepping

into the role of Big Sister, saying, quote, when I had my first son, I'll never forget it, the heartbreak on her face, not because I had a baby, but because we drove her in Cain all the way to Las Vegas to see him and she had a temperature, so she wasn't allowed to go in and see her new baby brother. And just the heartbreak on her face and in her heart. She was so upset like, I can't see my baby brother, but sure enough, the first day when

I brought him home, she wouldn't put him down. Definitely always a good sister. So after a few years of living with her dad and her stepmom in Bishop, the family of six relocated approximately 10 miles or 16 kilometers away to the White Mountain Estates neighborhood of Shalfant, California. And Shalfant is like a small, mostly residential community of only about 1,000 people along an abandoned southern Pacific Railroad route. The family purchased a three-bedroom, two-bath home on Ponderosa Street there, and while it was a little outside of the comparably larger community of Bishop,

Carly was unfazed because she was able to stay in the same school district and attend the same high school as all of her friends at Bishop Union High School. Carly was described by everyone who knew her as your typical teenager and loved to dance and hang out with friends. And she also had a boyfriend named Donald Arrowwood III. She's remembered as being perpetually upbeat and having it in the eternally positive attitude. When she wasn't at school, Carly worked part-time with her stepmom Melissa at the title company where Melissa worked as a notary public and loan signing agent.

Carly was known for being quiet and sweet, but also for having a great sense of humor. And by all accounts, she was well-liked at her school and had a ton of friends. Her mom Lindsay said, quote, Everybody knows Carly. They love her. We were always really, really open.

We were literally best friends. She could talk to me about anything. She is absolutely loved by everybody that knows her. She's such a sweet girl. She's funny. In a Facebook post announcing that she was missing, her older brother Cain, also called Carly his best friend. Melissa and Zach remember that Carly seemed happy, normal, and well-adjusted, leading up to her disappearance, and that nothing in particular seemed to be bothering her.

On the evening of Friday, October 12, 2018, Carly was planning on attending a football game with her friends. She left her dad and stepmom at home, saying goodbye as usual, and that she'd be home in a bit. But ultimately, Carly, her boyfriend and her friends decided to skip the game and hang out at a party instead. Around 8pm that night, Melissa received a call from Carly asking to be picked up. Melissa remembers her sounding paranoid and terrified. So terrified in fact that she didn't even want Melissa to hang up the phone with her until she got there and they were able

to go home. Carly told Melissa she'd be waiting on the street outside the Highlands Mobile Home community, just northwest of downtown Bishop. But when Melissa arrived, Carly was nowhere to be found. So she actually found Carly about a mile away running in the pitch black night with only her phone flashlight on. And she was on Dixon Lane. Again, she was about a mile away. Some sources said two miles away or over three kilometers. But so she was not near, I mean, at least walking distance near where she had told her stepmom she was going to be, which kind of aids, I think, in how afraid she was if she felt like she had to move around or run to a different area. Yeah, absolutely. She wasn't staying put in one location. She just got the hell out of there.

Yeah, and it was really chilly that night with a low of just 45 degrees Fahrenheit or around seven degrees Celsius. Melissa said the only reason she found Carly is because she had the flashlight on her phone on, and Melissa could see the light bouncing off the asphalt as she ran along the side of the road. She pulled up to rescue Carly, who climbed into the back seat, which Melissa found odd. According to Melissa, Carly was also switching seats for the entire ride home, and claiming that she was scared that the car would kill her. Melissa remembers her appearing ghost white with dilated pupils. Carly admitted right away that she and her friends and her boyfriend hadn't

gone to this game and that she'd instead gone to a party where she'd, in her words, smoked a little green. When they returned home, Zach was alarmed at Carly's state. Both he and Melissa remembered her being erratic, paranoid, and scared. Zach claims that he thought that she was more than just stoned, and that perhaps whatever she had smoked had been laced with something else, or that, fearing repercussions, Carly had lied about what she had taken or done. Carly apparently alternated between being afraid of Melissa and Zach, accusing them of wanting to kill her, telling them that she hated them, and telling them that she loved them, and

was so thankful to be home. Some sources say that Melissa and Carly arrived home around 9pm, and that Carly had called Melissa at 8pm. Others say that Carly called Melissa to be picked up around 9pm, and that the two returned home later. Obviously, this has been very difficult to verify, because Melissa's account of the evening has changed, but we'll get to that later. So Melissa said that she wanted to sober Carly up, so she made her a salad and gave her

a power bar to eat before she went to bed. Carly, still acting out of character, started spitting out the salad and said, this is the devil's lettuce. While she sat at the table, eating and talking to her stepmom, Melissa started recording audio on her phone of what Carly was saying. Now she later explained that this was to kind of teach her a lesson like she was gonna

play this audio for Carly later and kind of show her how scary she was being and warn her the dangers of drug use. And according to Melissa, Zach and Carly's three brothers were all awake when they arrived home. And Melissa and Carly talked for a while in the kitchen while she attempted to get Carly to eat, they watched TV for a while, and then started to get ready for bed. Carly was still very nervous and distressed, so much so that she wouldn't leave Melissa's side even to brush her teeth.

Carly asked Melissa if she would sleep next to her to keep her company, which Melissa said that she was happy to do, but that neither of them got much sleep. Melissa claimed that Carly was still acting strangely, making requests like wanting to paint her toenails and wanting to color. In Melissa's initial account, she claims that she was up pretty much all night keeping an eye on Carly until Carly finally fell asleep around 5.30 a.m.

She had taken Carly's phone and texted some of her friends and her boyfriend asking them to pray for Carly, which I feel like is kind of a strange thing to do. Yeah, it's a little bit weird. So that last text went out around 5.30 a.m. at which point Melissa noticed that Carly had fallen asleep, so she says that she went to sleep as well next to her. Nearly two hours later, around 7.15 a.m. on Saturday, October 13, 2018, Melissa woke up to an empty bed. 16-year-old Carly was gone. Neither Melissa, Carly's brothers, nor her dad had heard anything, and no doors opening or closing, but the front door was a jar. On a Facebook live

Melissa hosted, answering questions about the situation, she guessed that Carly had been gone since around 6.30am, based on a neighbor who said that he had seen her out walking. She also had left her phone, purse, and all of her belongings behind. Melissa recounted the morning saying, quote, I went back into our bedroom and I said, honey, she's not here, and he said, what do you mean she's not here? I said, she's gone. She's not in her room, she's not outside, she's not in the backyard, she's not here. I said, she's gone. She's not in her room, she's not outside, she's not in the back yard, she's not anywhere. At first, the two assumed that she had gone out for a walk to shake off the

previous evening. Around 7.30am, Melissa and Zach set out separately to drive around the neighborhood and look for her. According to Zach, he thought that they'd run right into her walking alongside the road. Melissa remembers, quote, I drove my Corolla out in the boonies over boulders. Zach took the truck and he took the binoculars. But after two hours with no sign of her, they knew that something was wrong. At 9.35am, they called Lindsay, who again is Carly's mom in Las Vegas, to tell her that Carly was gone.

Lindsay apparently panicked and immediately jumped to her being dead, which Melissa and Zach found strange. Lindsay later told Dr. Phil in an out-infamous appearance with Melissa and Zach, quote, quote, "'My heart sank. What do you mean she's gone? What led up to this? Where was she?

Who is she with? To achieve remember Zack replying quote, I don't know, she's just gone. Dr. Phil asked Lindsay quote, what did you think gone meant? And Lindsay replied dead. Lindsay got on the road immediately and started driving the four hours to them, while that called the police to officially report Carly missing. The initial assumption was that she had run away, perhaps still suffering from adverse effects she'd, you know, incurred from the weed that she had smoked the night before or whatever she had taken, and her boyfriend Donald said, quote, she hadn't smoked in a while. It could have triggered something. Police canvas the neighborhood and found three potential witnesses. One was a

neighbor who had seen Carly through their glass and clothes sunroom. She was apparently walking along the street at 6.30 that morning, nothing with her except for the clothes on her back. And this account is widely thought of as the most reliable. A local teacher called Melissa and said that she had seen Carly walking that morning as well, also just walking along the street. A woodworker working on a construction project outside that morning claimed to have seen her walking near Highway 6, and US Highway 6 is a transcontinental route that actually dead ends in Bishop California, but spans all the way to Providence Town, Massachusetts, a route of exactly 3,199 miles.

You know, we've talked about this, you know, various times throughout many different episodes, but having someone, especially a young girl, go missing near a highway, is extremely concerning, because it can mean that someone took her and that they left the area at a high rate of speed and could be headed anywhere. This is especially true of cases where a person is taken for human trafficking. In her unstable state of mind, Carly would have been particularly vulnerable to being scooped up on the side of the road by either an opportunistic kidnapper or a highly organized trafficking operation.

With that, police began an elaborate search of the surrounding Rocky Desert Terrain. They employed ATVs, helicopters, cadaver dogs, and search parties to the area, but found no sign of Carly or anything that she had left behind. The early assumptions were that she had still been feeling the effects of the drugs that she had smoked the night before, that she had gotten lost while out walking, and that she was currently confused and just kind of roaming the desert waiting to be found. I mean, a weed high doesn't last that long.

There's no way that she would have smoked weed before 8 p.m. and was still high at 5.30 a.m. and then 6.30 a.m. You know what I mean? When she apparently was seen, like it would have only lasted a few hours top. So it must have either been laced or she took something else by mistake or on purpose because obviously as we know if you smoke too much weed

Which is very possible especially if you don't smoke often you don't know how much your body can take Like you can easily become very scared of your surroundings because you're just too high But it wouldn't have lasted that long. No, no, you would have probably eventually ate some snacks and fell asleep. And that's why I think everybody agrees here that whatever she had taken or done at that party, it wasn't just smoking weed.

Yes, something. I mean, it's very apparent. Yes, I completely, something was super off. So unfortunately, we don't know what that would have been, which I'm sure is something that her friends and maybe her boyfriend would have known, but even her boyfriend Donald was like, oh yeah, well, she hadn't smoked in a while, so maybe it triggered something. But for anybody out here who smokes weed, it's just that's not how it works.

Yeah, I mean, I also don't know Carly's mental state at that point in time. Very true. So, I mean, that goes to show. It's hard for us to say. It's really hard for us to say Yeah, because if she was going something through something mentally and then smoked weed and it triggered something maybe possibly But I just don't see that as the likely scenario here But the problem is is that everybody was at this party probably drinking and doing various drugs or whatever and

So Donald probably wasn't keeping tabs on exactly what Carly was doing every second. Right. But it does seem that whatever she was going through was really intense, like the things that she was saying and the way that she was acting and how scared she really was, like something. Oh yeah. Something was up for sure. So Carly's mom Lindsay faced public criticism early on because she declined to participate in the search

parties stating that she was too overwhelmed and distraught to focus on the investigation. And this bothered Melissa and Zach in particular and Tenjin started to form between the three. But regardless of what others may think, Lindsay maintains that she was absolutely devastated by the sudden loss of her daughter. And her not going out there and searching didn't mean that she didn't care. She was just in a state of grief and everybody grieves differently and maybe she wasn't there. Yeah, maybe that wasn't something that she felt like she could do, which is fair.

But when asked by a newscaster what she would say to Carly if she could hear the message, Lindsay said through tears quote, Baby girl, there's nothing you can't say to me or call out to me. Just please Carly, I miss you, I love you, just keep praying baby, you're gonna come home. Bishop Locals posted ribbons and balloons in the color teal, which is one of Carly's favorite colors, around town to show support, and her family launched a guerrilla campaign for answers. Missing posters, papered the area.

Carly's school picture was all over social media, and billboards and signs sprung up in surrounding counties as far as Nevada. Her picture from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children even adorned the home screen of local ATMs. Police were sifting through daily tips, but none of them led to Carly. Behind the scenes, though, things were even more complicated. Lindsay and Melissa had very different approaches to how they grieved and how they searched for Carly, as we just mentioned. Melissa took to social media as soon as 10 hours after Carly's disappearance, hopping

on Facebook live and announcing, quote, "'It's going on 10 hours that she's been missing, and I want to put this on blast because I don't think she's out in the desert. I think that she could have been abducted or taken." And this is like a logical step in this day and age to take to social media, but some felt that it seemed exploitative and self-serving, and that Melissa was just enjoying the attention. And to anyone who thinks that's rude or a stretch, I mean, I definitely agree because if your loved one is missing, going to social media is really smart, even if they've been

missing for less than half a day. Sure. But I think that it was more so the discrepancies that followed and people already being suspicious of Melissa that made them annoyed at what she was doing. And I am thinking you're about to go into this anyway. Yeah, I am. So Lindsay in particular did not care for this behavior from Melissa. At first, the family seemed to be united in the common goal of finding Carly, but as time went on, Melissa's behavior started to urch Lindsay, as well as those who were following the case. The court of public opinion began ruling against Melissa, finding inconsistencies in her accounts and her stories.

So, in the original account, she gave both in her police statement and on the Facebook live that she made shortly after Carly's disappearance, Melissa remembered Carly falling asleep around 5.30 a.m. and said that she was asleep shortly after in the same bed. She then remembered waking up at 7.15am to find Carly Gone. But in interviews conducted later, her story started to shift a bit. She told NBC in an interview about a month after Carly's disappearance that she had gone through her quote,

usual morning routine of opening all four kids' doors and saying, good morning to them. She remembered Carly being in her own bed at this time, and Melissa said that she then went back to sleep in her own bed, and then the next time she checked on Carly in her own bed, that she was gone. So first she's saying that, oh yeah, I slept with her for like, you know, two hours, but then said that that wasn't true? Yeah, like, it's a pretty decent difference to say that you fell asleep next to her and woke up and she was missing too.

I checked on her and she was asleep and then next time I went in there after falling asleep in my own room, she was gone. Yeah, that's a huge difference. Yeah, I mean, I don't know why that would change. So Lindsay had suspected from the beginning that something was off within the house. Even going so far as to say in an interview quote, I believe there's evil in Zach and Melissa's house.

Unfortunately, this public finger pointing and blame shifting within Carly's own family led to much increase public scrutiny and media attention and not for Carly's disappearance, but for the interest in the drama going on behind the scenes between the parents. Before that break, we were just getting into how heavily affected the investigation into Carly's disappearance was by the speculation surrounding Carly's parents in Stepmom. On March 25, 2019, so five months after Carly went missing, her father, Zach, Stepmother Melissa, and Mother Lindsay made a now infamous appearance on Dr. Phil to attempt to dispel some of the rumors.

And Dr. Phil did not hold back from pointing out rumors and inconsistencies within the parent's testimonies. One hotly debated topic was that of the eight-minute audio recording that Melissa made of Carly the night before she disappeared. Many believe that the key to what happened to her may have been on that recording, but it had never been released publicly. In fact, Lindsay had never even heard the whole thing. Dr. Phil confronted Melissa about this directly in an exchange that went like this. Dr. Phil, I wanted to hear that tape, but you didn't let us hear that tape, tell me why. Zach, it's an ongoing investigation still, this is ongoing.

Melissa, the FBI have it, the sheriffs have it, it's not gonna- I don't think it's gonna solve the mystery of where she is. Dr. Phil, well, you don't know what I might know, or what I might not know. I would very much have liked to have heard that tape. Is there a reason that I didn't hear that tape? Melissa, nobody asked. Zach, no. Did anybody ask us? Melissa, I don't even think anybody asked.

Dr. Phil, oh, we asked, we asked. Melissa continued saying that she didn't want the whole world to have the tape, but that they would allow Dr. Phil himself to listen to it on a commercial break, which he did. After it was shared with him, Dr. Phil assessed that Carly was indeed paranoid, and that it was consistent with how Melissa and Zach claimed that Carly had been acting that night, saying, quote, I'm very glad that you made that recording. What it tells me is, as I said, this is a mind-altering drug. Because of her degree of paranoia, it makes perfect sense to me that she would try to flee.

Melissa also revealed that the recording was intentionally withheld from Lindsay and was shared with her, but she couldn't bring herself to listen to the whole thing. She instead passed it along to the private investigator that she hired. It's been reported that what Carly had been talking about on the recording had to do with her own spirituality and religion, like needing to go to church more and wanting to read the Bible. She apparently brought up the devil multiple times and that she was having dark thoughts. What Hans Lindsey the most though is that Carly apparently

asked Melissa to call 911. According to Lindsey, she said at one point, Mom, to which Melissa responded, no, it's not your mom, it's Melissa. Carly apologized and said that she was scared. She then asked Melissa to call 911, which Melissa agreed to, but then when she didn't, Carly asked why, to which Melissa replied, quote, because there's nothing wrong. Again, because not many people have actually heard what's on the recording, this isn't concretely confirmed, but this brought about further criticism that Carly knew there was something wrong with her and that she should have been taken to the emergency room, or that Melissa should have called 911.

Her dad told Dr. Phil, quote, every second of every day I wish I had. But because it's never been released, we don't know exactly what she said and we may never know. Dr. Phil also questioned why Melissa and Zach had also refused to let the producers of the show speak with the neighbor who had witnessed Carly passing by earlier on the morning

of her disappearance, to which they again responded that they had not been asked. So, man, this is really tough because I hate to be blaming Melissa, but also at the same time, Carly said that she wanted her to call 911. Why wouldn't you listen to her? Why wouldn't you listen to Carly?

And why wouldn't you call 911 when she's saying that she's scared? Yeah, I don't know. And I wish we could hear more of the recording so we knew what was going on. But the fact that she made the recording in the first place proved that Melissa feels like her behavior was really, really bizarre, saying all these scary things and saying that she herself was scared. So obviously, it's not like Melissa could say, oh well, I didn't know how serious it was.

You recorded it. So of course you did. You were scared yourself. Yeah, there was enough crazy shit going on to where you're like, I need to record this. Yeah, but again, I agree. It feels wrong to point the finger at Melissa, especially if she's not involved in this,

like some people believe she is. And if she just simply made a mistake and didn't call 911 when she should have, you know? Yeah, and the other thing about this that just really pisses me off is like going back to the whole drama of this whole situation. Like, you guys are not focused on finding Carly, it's just a big dramatic show.

But I think the reason it is is because so many people think that Melissa and Zach are behind Carly's potential death and so that's why they're being brought up in this so much But I mean I definitely agree it's there's obviously a lot of drama here. Yeah, just sad from that standpoint So there was also speculation that Carly accidentally overdozed and died in sleep. And that Melissa and Zach simply panicked and disposed of her body. This is honestly kind of hard for me to believe. I think it's really creepy and just unsettling

that Lindsey has said that she thinks there's evil in their house, especially considering some of the things that Carly was saying about the devil and things like that. It's kind of just weird. But I think I just don't know why any parent would cover up their child's death. It's not like you gave them. It's not like you gave Carly the drugs and her overdoses.

You're false. Yeah. I mean, what would be what would be the motivation there? Because honestly, Carly told Zach and Melissa that she was going to a football game and they didn't know she was going to a football game and they didn't know she was gonna go to a party so you know and on that side of things it's like what would be the motivation to dispose of her body they're not guilty of anything

yeah they didn't they didn't do anything wrong except for maybe not calling 9-1-1 when she was potentially in danger health wise if she was on some kind of drug that she shouldn't have been on, but yeah, anyway, keep going. Right, so critics claim that this may be why there have been inconsistencies in their accounts, and why they were accused of withholding information from Dr. Phil that may have aided in the search for their daughter.

Lindsay herself believes that that is precisely what happened, saying quote, I believe my daughter had a reaction to whatever it was that she had ingested the night prior to her disappearance. Carly should have been evaluated by competent medical professionals and a law enforcement agency should have taken a more proactive approach. Lindsay added that Zach and Melissa's actions after the disappearance, quote, surely make me question what happened that night. She said tearfully in her interview with Dr. Phil, quote, I believe my daughter had a drug overdose, and I believe it because she was asking for help. And I believe very early that morning, Melissa saw her with her eyes open, and I think that's

when my daughter passed. This infuriated Melissa who responded with quote, How dare you, because I'm her stepmom, because I didn't give birth to her? Carly's case had become so famous, but for the wrong reasons, sensationalized for becoming more about the drama between the parents than about the disappearance of this innocent teenage girl. So aside from the very public parental feud and discrepancies, discrepancies, discrepancies threatening to, you know, derail the investigation, there have also been several false leads.

In one YouTube video entitled, Found Missing Teen in Mountains, Cold 9-1-1. Two men out riding dirt bikes claim to have found Carly walking on a rugged hiking and biking trail. The 26-minute video uploaded by user Joey Mack 420 even features Carly's picture and missing poster in the thumbnail when you search the video on YouTube. So they're like advertising it as if they found Carly. Yeah. Over a recording made via GoPro while riding his bike, Joey,

bike passed a, or bike passed a young girl that he claimed matched 16 year old Carly's description. Saying quote, that was so creepy and, quote, where the hell did she come from? The men were out riding near Hemett, California, which is a city of 84,000 people in the San Hasino Valley in Riverside County, so Southern California.

And it hosts the International Headquarters of Scientology. Hemett is less than an hour from Palm Springs for reference, but Carly's hometown of Bishop is five hours north. But given that this video was uploaded on July 19th, 2019, it's possible that Carly could have made her way to the area by that point, you know, with it being nine months later.

The video, which is still posted and sits at over 22 million views, did not turn out to be Carly, but instead a 15-year-old girl and her 17-year-old boyfriend who had run away. And luckily, they were able to get the help that they needed and were reunited with their families. But the video garnered massive criticism, accusing the YouTuber of using Carly for clickbait, which again, considering that it's up there, that's the thumbnail, I mean, maybe he uploaded it

before knowing for sure, but it's still there and it's getting so many views, probably because you're almost advertising that you found Carly and you didn't. Yeah, I mean, at this point, you should just take it down because it's really not doing anything. It's not helping at all. Yeah, I mean, the people that he actually found

are now with their families and they're fine. So it's like, you know, I can't say that his initial intention was to, you know, to put out this ruse, but now at this point, come on. Yeah, we were past that. We're past that, yeah. So the next conspiracy theory that Carly was dragged into also involved YouTube. Some of you may remember the strange channel of Kate Yeap,

a YouTuber with almost 1.5 million subscribers. Kate put out viral ASMR videos, and those who watch or listen report feeling a sense of comfort akin to the physical sensation of someone playing with your hair or rubbing your back. You like ASMR? I do, yeah. I mean, sometimes it puts me to sleep. Yeah, I think most of us know what it is. It's just, it's like autonomous sensory meridian response.

And a lot of people like to like touch their microphone and like whisper. We can do it right now. We're doing it. Yeah, ASMR. But Kate actually specialized in ASMR mukbang videos, which is when the host eats like large quantities of food while on camera and the audience enjoys hearing the sounds made by whomever is consuming the food, which I think I don't know. I personally think that's horrifying. I like the crunchy ones. Like whenever somebody has a really crunchy onion ring, I love that.

I can't say I'm a fan. I just don't like the sound. You like your ASMR, not mukbang. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And for those of you who don't know, mukbang is a term combining the Korean word for food, mukda, with broadcasting bang sung, and Kate usually ate seafood, but in extreme amounts. At one point, consuming 11 pounds of salmon seemingly in one sitting. Which, oh, that's a lot of salmon.

So her videos became extremely popular, with her most watched video sitting at 24 million views. But fans started noticing cuts on her mouth and bruises on her arms, and some pointed out hearing an off-camera male voice giving orders like hurry up and just eat it, leading some to believe that she was being held against her will and forced to eat on camera. What's more intriguing, she always was blindfolded, no one ever saw above the tip of her nose. As fans and followers began to comment pointing out their fears that she was a victim of kidnapping, Kate's videos began to lean into these theories.

In one video she wrote on screen, quote, the meat is so delicious, soft and tender, with the S.O. and S. capitalized. As if this was some kind of message, and some pointed out on another video that she seemed to be tapping in Morris code on the side of the bull out of which she was eating. Her last video was posted almost three years ago on October 24th, 2019, so just a year after

Carly went missing. And as mysteriously as they began, they stopped. Armchair detectives began to connect it to Carly when they noticed that the girl's features were similar. They're both thin, young women with pretty fair skin, light brown hair, and even similar smiles. TikTok grabbed a hold of this theory, and there are dozens of videos comparing the two, claiming that Carly was kidnapped and is being forced to create content for whomever

is holding her hostage. However, this is a pretty common scam amongst creators, so it's just possible that Kate noticed these concerns in the comments from her fans and played into them for views. On September 26, 2021, Lindsay dispelled the Kate Yup conspiracy theory posting quote, channel and the video. At this time, law enforcement has checked into it, and it's not Carly. Thanks. The timeline didn't check out. Kate Yupp's first video was uploaded on April 23, 2018, and Carly didn't go missing until October 13, 2018. So even though we know this isn't Carly, we wanted to mention it because so many people

compare Carly's disappearance to Kate's videos for some reason, even though it can be debunked as easily as just looking at when the video started. Like Heath just said, six months before Carly went missing. Right. So, you know, obviously that is a immediate debunk, but also before we even noticed that the videos were made before she went missing. I was comparing her face structure and it's really hard to find photos of Carly

smiling with her teeth. She usually does like the close mouth smile or like a perslip. But I found one picture of her smiling with her teeth. And the teeth that she has versus Kate Yups looked totally different to me. So just from that alone, I was like, I don't think this is her, but the dates say it all.

You know? Yeah, and I think people just want to lean into a good conspiracy theory. Absolutely. Every now and again, you know, and it's just like, it's not helping. But we also have received a ton of requests to cover Kate Yupp's story.

And the only reason we haven't is because there really isn't any concrete information about her at all. Like, and there's apparently a comment, it is one of her videos that she made herself. Like it was a comment that she wrote that said, help me now. And there's a video that I watched today, actually,

where, like, text comes up as she's eating, which, by the way, she never talks in the videos. This video is called I Dip Seafood in Mysota, eight kinds of seafood. And it was posted on October 5th, 2019. It's her second to last video. And the video starts by her smiling really big. She's blindfolded. She's given a thumbs up. And text comes up that says, hey, I am very well as you can see. But the way she always does I am, it's I apostrophe AM, like it's one word. So I am very well as you can see. And then 22 minutes and 40 seconds in, it says, quote, as you can notice, I apostrophe AM, happy nobody is torturing me. And then 20 seconds later it says, oh no, I'm lying. And then a bit after that it says, in fact,

there is people torturing me every day without even knowing it. All those who are continuing to spread the rumor. So that's weird, you know? And then she released one more video after this and she hasn't posted since. And she is a total of 29 videos over a year and a half. So maybe she just got sick of the rumors and stuff and decided to stop posting, but it's also weird to me that she hasn't made a video just saying, I'm fine, I'm just done making

videos because if you Google Kate up, everybody is like, kidnaped, dead, like, so surely if she is alive out there and well, she knows about this conspiracy about her. Yeah, and if she is alive and well out there, why would she come out and say, hey guys I'm fine, I mean she's getting views on her YouTube channel for literally, you know, people thinking that she's being held hostage. I'm not saying that she's not, and I'm not saying that she is, because I really haven't watched her videos, but. Wait, are you saying you think she should say that she's fine or she shouldn't?

No, I'm just- If she's just getting her more views. No, I'm just saying she wouldn't say that she is fine if people are only interested in her being like some hostage victim. So you're saying maybe her being missing if she is index tact or sorry, if she's not actually a victim of kidnapping,

she's maybe not saying that she's okay because she likes that all of her videos are getting views. Yeah, I mean, yeah, sure, like you could be using this as some sort of ruse to get more views on YouTube. I really don't know. It's just hard to say. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's hard to say and i don't want to look too much into it um yeah sorry

sorry it's alright didn't mean to go on like a huge kate up segway i just i wanted to address it because so many people have requested her story and i think it is very weird as well but anyway so let's get back to carly so the thought that is most you that is most likely scenario is still that she was either kidnapped on the side of the road where she had been walking that morning at around 6.30 or that she was taken and trafficked. She would have been in a very vulnerable state and an easy target, as we've said. And this doesn't necessarily point to anything happening, but I do just want to add this

for the sake of having all the facts. So on February 11th, 2021, Melissa called 911, citing domestic violence, and Zach was arrested for a felon account of corporal injury to a spouse. Now, corporal injury means that it was more than just a domestic dispute. The complainant actually has to sustain an injury caused by physical force from the perpetrator who was in this case, Zach.

Later that year in May of 2021, police were dispatched to the residents again after Zach and Cain, who is Carly's older brother, got into a physical altercation and Kane wound up holding a knife to his own throat and threatened to kill himself. Melissa took off in her car with Kane's girlfriend to get her to a safe location and at some point last year, Kane was also charged with a felony count of assault with a firearm. So I mean, these charges may have no connection to Carly's disappearance, but it is a bit, you know, strange. Yeah, I mean, for context, it's good to know what at least was going on in the house

in general. Yeah, I agree. So in 2020, the FBI released a series on YouTube to bring attention to the case called the things they carried, interviewing members of Carly's family and law enforcement working to find her. Her little brother Cole said, quote, my body's thinking, oh, she's here, you just don't see her, she's invisible.

I don't know, or she's gone, I don't know. Whenever I think about her and where she would be, most of my body says she's, I don't know, in Hawaii or somewhere on a beach just having fun and hanging out with a bunch of new friends that she's made when she was gone, and then she's coming back fine. Or the other little bit of part of me is like she's probably dead. Her boyfriend Donald posted a heartfelt tribute to her on Facebook after her disappearance, and it says quote,

Words cannot explain how much I miss you, nor can this post. I pray for your safety, my Carly Babes, wherever you are. I want to know you're okay, I want to hold you in my arms, I want to lay your head on my chest and be in your presence, because the only thing that can ever make me happy is you. You give me a purpose in this life. Come home so I can look into those beautiful, gorgeous, big blue eyes and see your amazing smile and wrap you in my arms.

It's so amazing and heartwarming seeing how much the word is getting out and how many people are supporting you. Let's bring Carly home The FBI is still offering a $5,000 reward for information and Carly's family is offering $17,500 Carly did not have anything with her when she disappeared. She is believed to have left in a white t-shirt, gray sweatpants and vans brand shoes. She's 5'7, weighs around 110 pounds, and is light brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information is urged to call the Monocowni Police Department at 760-932-5678, 6-0, 9-3-2, 5-6-7-8.

Or submit a tip to Carly Goosey Tips at monoshareof.org. Or to the FBI tipline at tips.fbi.gov. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. What a bizarre story that we discussed today because of, I mean, again, the suspicion against her stepmom and her dad is really disturbing and obviously we want that to be either, it's because it's hard. Like, how can you follow through the investigation if you're like, either this could have happened

or the complete opposite and she was abducted while she actually was on a walk? Yeah, I mean, I feel like there should definitely be more interest in that time frame between Carly getting home with Melissa and then the next morning because it just, it seems so weird to me, just the entire scenario that happened in Melissa changing her story saying, oh yeah, I, you know, I slept in the bed next to her and then, oh yeah, no, she was in her bedroom. I mean, how do you get that next step? I don't know. See, that's the thing. That is the weird thing.

I think to everybody is just why would your story change? Right. But the other part of that is that, you know, you've got these witnesses that say that they saw Carly walking down the road. So I do again think that the most likely scenario is that she was abducted from this highway. Right. Which just makes us wonder even more what she had taken or what was going on in her head and why, and you're not me blaming her, you know, leaving on her own, but it just makes us wonder more about the state that she was in, because I think that would help give

us more of an idea of what she was doing out there, you know what I mean? So very crazy story, thank you again to everybody who recommended it and everybody for listening. Those names again, Claire, Tommy, Tori, Natalie and Brandon. Thank you guys so much. If you guys have a story that you want Heath and I to cover, we have a massive list right now,

but email us going westpodcast at gmail.com. Also, if you're looking for more content more episodes going west you can head over to our patreon we've got a bunch of bonus episodes and we do cover in an international cases we've got like I don't know like eighty now or there are all seven seven seventy something I always forget the number right right so head on over to p a t r e o n dot com slash going west podcast to get some extra content. And don't forget to let us know what you think about this case and every other case we cover

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