The Misery Machine - Where is Cassie Renee Sheetz?

Starting point is 00:00:09 Hi, I wrote a Missouri Machine. I'm here again. And I'm Drewby. And this week we're doing a missing person's case that is sadly going and noticed amidst everything going on with the Gabby Petito case. And that's the case of Cassie Renee's sheets. And thank you so much, Brittany, for bringing this case to our attention. I hadn't heard of this. I'm so glad you reached out so we could help in any way that we can. Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Brittany. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. This is the best way to raise our platform so we can bring a light to more of these unknown missing persons. person's cases. Absolutely. But without further ado. Where is Cassie Sheets? One cannot turn on the television, open up a newspaper, or scroll through their social media without hearing about the case of 22-year-old Gabby Petito, a free spirit traveling across country in a converted van with her fiance, Brian Laundrie, and her unfortunate fate in Wyoming. But what about all the men, women, and children that go missing on a daily basis that don't spark

Starting point is 00:01:12 the media's attention. According to Namas, over 600,000 people go missing each year in the United States, and that's ranging from young children to older individuals. The young mother at the center of our story was one of those people. 25-year-old Cassie Renee Sheets was born to parents Larry Black and Arlene Howard, the eldest of three children, on July 25, 1996. She's described by her aunt Samantha Black as an intelligent, caring, and emotionally driven child, whom she thought of more of as a bonus daughter than as a niece. As she grew, Samantha noted that like many young adults, Cassie couldn't take the easy route because it never satiated her curiosity and was often very misguided. Just shy of her 16th birthday, Cassie married a boy by the name of Billy Sheets.

Starting point is 00:02:03 Samantha remembers Cassie being scared, trying to put on a brave face because, quote, that's what brides are supposed to do. Her aunt asked her many times if this is what she really wanted. However, Samantha wouldn't find out for months that Cassie was suffering from an addiction which landed her in jail repeatedly. Through this union, Cassie had daughters Ruby and then Bella, whose name she proudly wore tattooed on her chest. Her mother Arlene describes Cassie as smart, talented, beautiful, and sassy, very outspoken and wanting to stand out. She went on to describe Cassie as her best friend, full of love and compassion, always putting smiles on people's faces with her playful nature. She was also trusting of people, and that trust in folks would lead her into trouble.

Starting point is 00:02:50 When she was 20 years old, Cassie was charged with selling bupren, naloxone, and heroin on separate occasions between September 2014 and January 2015. A judge sentenced Cassie to 20 years in jail with all but two years suspended. He also suspended a $1,500 fine. Along with the two years of jail time, Cassie had to forfeit her driver's license for three years, serve three years of supervised probation, and pay $140 in restitution. The judge stated that given her young age, Cassie had too much left in life, to waste it on dangerous drugs. Virginia State Police used a confidential informant equipped with marked funds and a discrete recording device to purchase narcotics from Cassie on three occasions.

Starting point is 00:03:39 On September 2nd, an informant purchased naloxone and buprenorphine from Cassie and her car in a store lot in Front Royal Virginia. On January 27th, the informant purchased $50 worth of heroin from Cassie in a convenience store parking lot, which was within 1,000 feet of a school. On January 28th, the informant purchased $60 worth of heroin from Cassie at a residence on Viscose Avenue and Front Royal. Later that day, authorities executed a search warrant at the residence, at which time Cassie disclosed that she had been selling the narcotics and had more in the house, along with the Virginia State Police funds in her wallet.

Starting point is 00:04:15 During her prison stay, Cassie met and became fast friends with a woman named Brittany. From the moment the two met, the pair instantly clicked. They were so much alike. it was as if they were the same person, according to Brittany. Cassie loved helping people. She loved the outdoors and excitement. She loved to make people laugh, sing and dance, and she was so full of life. Cassie hated the dark, and it killed her to be away from her children whom she loved and missed very much.

Starting point is 00:04:43 All she talked about was her kids. Despite her troubled past, it didn't change the fact that Cassie was someone you wanted to be around. Although Cassie was younger than Brittany, she described her as very much. for her age. The two ladies had matching tattoos on their hands. To quote Brittany, I have a tattoo she did on my hand. It's horrible, but we were supposed to have matching ones. I don't know if hers is still there or how it was because it didn't turn out, but I remember it like yesterday. My big butt sat on her lap while she did it so we wouldn't get caught because obviously we were locked up." Sometime after her release from prison, Cassie began dating a man by the name of

Starting point is 00:05:23 Sam Crichtes. Per Cassie's social media, the couple became engaged to be married on February 11th, 2019, and together the couple had a son named Gage. Cassie and Billy were still married at this time, but had been separated and not formally divorced. Sam himself had a troubled past with the rest for aggravated DUI, domestic battery, petty larceny, and most recently burglary. However, this case isn't about Cassie's troubled past, at least not directly. According to reports, on March 11, 2021, Cassie set out on a hike in the Monongahela National Forest near Spruce Knob in Pendleton County, West Virginia with two men, Grant Sager and James Brill the 2nd. Spruce Knob is West Virginia's highest peak at 4,863 feet, and it's the highest ridge of the Allegheny Mountains. For our local listeners here in Maine, this is just 406 feet shy of our own Mount Katadin, which in my opinion,

Starting point is 00:06:23 is not for the novice hiker. Despite her love for the outdoors, friends and family have stated that Cassie was not a hiker and could not imagine why she would have been out there, especially due to the poor weather conditions that week. There was snow on March 10th and freezing rain in the days prior. According to Grant and James, as well as via a Facebook post from Grant's mother, Jacqueline Barnett, the trio set out at Huckleberry Trail, which is an 8.8 mile out and back trail located near Riverton, West Virginia. The path is moderately trafficked and is noted for its beautiful wildflowers in a waterfall. According to Hiking Guide AllTrails.com, Huckleberry Trail is best used from May until October. According to a thread in a West Virginia subreddit, it's a single switchback trail up and down the

Starting point is 00:07:10 mountain with no side trails leading off it once you reach the summit. Allegedly Cassie thought it was a beautiful day and wanted to show the boys something at Spruce Knob. although what that something was remains unknown to this day. Supposedly Cassie was familiar with the trails and had been there prior. However, Cassie's family and friends dispute this claim. The three allegedly hiked all day and around 10 p.m. became separated when they supposedly heard a sound and Grant went to investigate its origin, stating that he'd catch up with a pair. Grant then became lost in the woods for hours, according to him, after which he finally made his way back to the car, thinking, James and Cassie would be waiting for him, except they weren't.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Allegedly Grant became cold and wet as it had begun to rain, so he broke the back window to James' car as Cassie had the keys and he didn't want to freeze. However, text messages with Cassie actually show the window in question was broken for at least a week prior. Furthermore, if you were trying to gain access to a locked vehicle, why not simply break a side window in order to gain access instead of climbing in through the rear of the vehicle? Two hours later, James emerged from the trail without Cassie. James claimed that Cassie had been walking far ahead of him and he had tripped, fell, and lost sight of her. A story that anyone who knows Cassie claims didn't make sense.

Starting point is 00:08:34 According to Brittany, quote, she wouldn't have left them in the woods, and especially if someone fell down, she would have helped them, not walk away. I mean, that's what most people would do reasonable or not. Right? And then she goes on to say, I could count on her to have my back, even when, when I was wrong, end quote. According to Grant, he then went back out onto the trail to look for Cassie. It should be noted that the trio allegedly embarked on this hiking trip without any of the necessary gear that one would expect to bring with them on a day excursion up the highest peak in the state, even if this was just a side trail. They didn't have proper hiking attire, food, water, shelter, blankets, or flashlights, which leads some folks to wonder if the hiking question truly

Starting point is 00:09:18 even happened at all. Cassie was also reportedly terribly afraid of the dark, so hiking through the woods at night without a flashlight would have been totally out of the question. Eventually, a passing motorist saw James Carr and stopped to assist, although it's unclear if he flagged them down initially. The motorist contacted 911 and law enforcement began their search for Cassie and Grant that morning. According to Grant's mother Jacqueline, Grant was able to walk and find his way to a road and a rescuer, escorted him to an ambulance as he had fallen down in a bankment and, quote, messed up his hip, end quote. He also claimed he broke a bone in his foot. This is, however, where the story starts to get murky, because reports indicate that during

Starting point is 00:10:02 the course of the search for Grant and Cassie, several hikers and members of the search parties had passed Grant, and he refused to make eye contact with them. He was also approached by a game warden who asked if he was in need of assistance, and rather than explaining who he was and getting help searching for Cassie, Grant advised the game warned that he was just making his way to his car so that he could get back into town. It has also been noted by law enforcement that Grant actually had no injuries at all whatsoever. Something of note that hasn't been explained is the fact that at some point Grant changed as close. In pictures taken of the three on the date of Cassie's disappearance, Grant is seen wearing a gray

Starting point is 00:10:44 long-sleeved shirt, a dark gray and black style baseball cap, and camouflage pants. However, when Grant was found, he was wearing a black Zew York t-shirt, khaki-colored pants, and a black beanie. The clothing that he was originally wearing has never been recovered, and he had never made it back to James's car after departing back into the woods in order to change those clothes. Also, some folks have noted that Cassie is wearing two different styles of boots and pictures taken in the woods. In a picture of the three that they claim was taken after they affixed the phone to a piece of string from a tree, Cassie can be seen wearing a pair of work style boots. However, in another picture of Cassie with James, Cassie is wearing a pair of

Starting point is 00:11:28 ug-style boots. It's been noted that Grant and Cassie previously dated in the past and that he had regularly threatened her in front of other people. Grant also had his own run into the law for firearms charges and for manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine. Grant is currently in the custody of the West Virginia Division of Corrections on drug-related charges. He was quick to lawyer up and has refused to take a polygraph test. And I'll say this every time as a disclaimer. Just because you lawyer up and refuse to take a polygraph test does not mean you are guilty. But it should be noted. That's what he did. James, on the other hand, has taken a polygraph test and has passed. that neither of them had anything to do with Cassie's disappearance.

Starting point is 00:12:14 So here's another really bizarre happening that is an interesting coincidence. A year prior to Cassie's disappearance, James and Grant were also the last people to see Sierra Sager, who is Grant's cousin and the fiancé of James. Sierra and James also have a child together. So this is kind of what happened. On February 28, 2020, Sierra allegedly drove out into the middle of nowhere

Starting point is 00:12:40 and completed suicide in her car. Allegedly, Grant was the last person that Sierra had spoken to prior to taking her life. And Grant was the person to locate her, despite Sierra not telling anyone where she was going. So due to these strange circumstances, many folks believe that her death might not be a suicide at all. Sierra died by gunshot wounds,

Starting point is 00:13:03 and the angle of entry does not align with that of his self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Furthermore, James shared a series of messages that were allegedly written by Sierra in the days prior to her death, and they were allegedly taken from her phone. However, family and friends, including her sister Olivia, have noted that the messages do not sound like Sierra, and that police had Sierra's phone in evidence, and they never found any such messages on it. So not even a year prior, these two were surrounding someone else's suspiciously. death. Again, we're not trying to declare anyone's guilt, but this is something that should definitely be taken into consideration when investigating these two, in my opinion. But as far as Cassie's investigation is concerned, early on, law enforcement received a lead that Cassie had been seen

Starting point is 00:13:57 at a nearby Walmart. However, police ruled it out because the tattoos on the woman identified did not match those of Cassie. According to news reports, some of the leads police have received have been attempts to extort Cassie's family. In an interview with WHSV.com, Cassie's mother, Arlene Howard, stated, quote, I got a text message early in the morning saying, Mommy, I need your help, I'm in California.

Starting point is 00:14:23 Then all of a sudden it went from that to look, we kidnapped your daughter, we have her and we need $10,000, or I'm going to take a single bullet and put it between her eyes, end quote. Arlene stated that the message was sent through the text now app, and it appears that Cassie's account and number associated with the account were hacked. Police have been unable to ping Cassie's phone as it's currently Wi-Fi only,

Starting point is 00:14:47 but her last known Google location places her in Riverton, which is about 30 minutes away from the trail. In July, a billboard was erected in Elkins, West Virginia, to raise awareness of Cassie's disappearance and to share contact information of the local investigative agencies. So why hasn't Cassie's case, and many other cases, just like hers, been getting the media attention that it deserves in contrast to that of the Gabby Petito case, for example. So we talked briefly about missing white women's syndrome before

Starting point is 00:15:18 during our Flora of Fire episode, but that phrase has garnered more attention recently due to Gabby's case. So if you're unfamiliar with what missing white women syndrome is, it's basically the disproportionate media coverage, especially in television, of missing persons cases and homicides involving young, white, upper middle class women or girls compared to the relative lack of attention towards missing women who are not white, women of lower social classes, and missing men are boys. So as we discussed earlier, Cassie was a young mother who was married at 15 years old. She was of a lower income. She served time behind bars for drug-related offenses and struggled with addiction. Cassie lives in Appalachia, which has been dubbed ground zero for the opioid

Starting point is 00:16:07 epidemic. In fact, Sergeant Andy Teeter of the West Virginia State Police had the audacity to refer to Cassie as a tweaker in a newspaper. So not only is that cruel and completely unprofessional, but it shines a light on the fact that law enforcement doesn't care about folks that the mainstream media doesn't deem newsworthy. The West Virginia State Police lists 17 missing people on their website and Cassie is not among those listed. In contrast, NAMIS lists 139 missing people on theirs. And I'll tell you right now just from personal experience with our state as well, that's pretty normal state to state.

Starting point is 00:16:48 Maine has the same problem. And I bet if you checked out your own statewide missing persons list and then checked NAMIS, you'd see a giant discrepancy as well. I also noted a comment in the Cassie Renee Sheets, Facts and Updates Facebook group that Cassie was half Lenny Lanopi ancestry, which is indigenous people from the northeastern woodlands. As many of you already know, there is a disproportionate number of missing and murdered indigenous women and children globally, and the government, law enforcement, and the media all turn a blind eye to it. If you need an example of this, look no further than the Gabby Petito case. Between 2011 and 2020, at least 710 indigenous people went missing in Wyoming alone. 85% of the missing are children, while 57% are female. These folks have not been located, whereas it took days for law enforcement to locate Gabby's body in Wyoming's Grand Teetan National Park.

Starting point is 00:17:46 Imagine if all of the missing got this same kind of energy. So you might ask yourself, what is it I can do to help with Cassie's case or cases like Cassie's? Simply sharing memes on Facebook regarding why one group of people gets more coverage than another group of people is not helping. It's actually performative and attention-seeking behavior on the backs of those who need our help. It serves no one but your own ego, so please stop doing this. Instead, what you can do and what is the best thing that you can do is to get involved via social media by sharing missing persons flyers. Make sure that your efforts are focused on all missing persons and victims of violent crime. Not just the ones that look like you and make you.

Starting point is 00:18:35 feel more comfortable. We all have a platform, use it. It does not need to be a podcast. Keep informed about the missing persons cases in your area. Namus is a fantastic resource. Meet with the families of missing people to see how you can support them. Especially if you have a podcast, a YouTube channel, or any sort of public facing platform on social media. So keep the pressure on local law enforcement. Call your local senator. Ring up the governor's office. If you're able to, donate time, funds, and resources when you can. At the time of her disappearance, Cassie was wearing camouflage pants and a hoodie. Per the photographs taken in the woods, Cassie also may have been wearing boots and a black tank top.

Starting point is 00:19:23 Cassie has several tattoos, including the names Ruby and Bella on her upper chest, along with a heart. Cassie also has multiple facial piercings, including those on her ears, lips, eyebrow, and belly button. She stands 5 foot, 2 inches tall and weighs between 120 and 140 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. If you have any information on the whereabouts of Cassie Renee sheets, please contact the West Virginia State Police at 304-358-2200, her father, Larry Black at 540-333-504, or her mother Arlene Howard at 304-719. 7-7-1-8 will have those numbers in the description. And if you're asking, well, why are you making the family's numbers public?

Starting point is 00:20:11 They are putting it out there and asking to be contacted through those numbers. It's all above board. So in closing, I made a post on the Cassie Renee Sheets, Facts, and Updates Facebook group, looking for your memories of Cassie. So I would like to give a special shout-out to Arlene Howard, Samantha Black, and Brittany Kay. Without you, ladies, I literally would not have been able to tell Cassie's story. I got so much great information from you all. I'd also like to thank Kiba Chai

Starting point is 00:20:38 for making an informative series of videos regarding Cassie's disappearance, as well as videos regarding other missing persons cases. So we'll have her channel link below in the show notes. You can check her out. She definitely has a future in this. Yeah, she's one of the first people to cover Cassie's case, I believe, and it was definitely helpful in doing research.

Starting point is 00:20:57 Lastly, we'd like to share a memory of Cassie from her friend, Jesse Lynn Dillon, Quote, she was my best friend in school before her move. I went and visited her on our way to pick up a then friend of ours. All I wanted was for her to meet my husband and to hug her. Her and I had been through so much. She knew how uptight my parents were and helped me through some pretty tough shit. She was my roommate in Disney, some of my most wild memories.

Starting point is 00:21:26 Every morning we would get up super early and go for a swim in the hotel pool, just because it was relaxing and quiet, and we enjoyed the time together. She fought half the time with our other roommate, and that kept me in the middle. Two beds, and she let me sleep with her, so I wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. If that doesn't tell you her caringness, nothing will.

Starting point is 00:21:47 We cried many times on each other's shoulders over whatever guy we were with that broke our hearts at the time. She wasn't afraid to tell someone exactly how she was feeling, and it often led to fights between us. In the end, we'd apologize and go right back to telling us. each other everything. God, I fucking miss her, end quote. Another really important thing that I

Starting point is 00:22:08 failed to mention is folks are going to miss it, but I hope they have other searches in the future, but on October 3rd, which will be this Sunday, we're recording right now on Wednesday, the 29th. The family and friends of Cassie are going to be having a search out on spruce

Starting point is 00:22:24 knob for her. So keep your eyes peeled in the future for other searches that they plan to do. Join her Facebook group and hopefully if you're in the West Virginia area, you can assist with that. So if you appreciate this video, please hit like and subscribe. It is one of the best ways to support our channel. Share this video, not just for the fact that it's good exposure for us,

Starting point is 00:22:47 but share this video to get Cassie's case circulating. If you think methods like this don't work, this is exactly how cases like the Gabby Petito case, like the Delphi murders, got notice, got into circulation, because of people circulating them over and over until it got national media attention. Cassie's case should get national media attention. And I really think it can. I think it can too.

Starting point is 00:23:13 I think a lot more cases can, and we just don't realize it. We think certain cases just take off, but really, they happen to do the hard work of people, sharing these cases and signal boosting them and getting them out to as many people as possible. So if you were one of these people that put in a lot of people, hard work for Gabby's case. I humbly ask you to do the same for Cassie. We also have a very wonderful group of people who have chosen to subscribe to us on Patreon, so let's thank those people now. Yes, so thank you, Eddie, Rowan, Marky, Hawley, Serena, Carrey, Mark, Terran, Neal and Karen, Dave and Karina, Dakota, and Kitty, Jen Mo, Jenny, Robin, Tom, Kaylee, Alex, Jacob, Bailey,

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Starting point is 00:24:28 There's Buy Me a Coffee. There's our PayPal. There's Subscribe Star, which Blue Unicorn is subscribed to us through. Which, by the way, subscribe Blue Unicorn on YouTube. I keep forgetting to say this every week. But he is a very, very good channel. He does very interesting music covers, and he does other things as well. I wouldn't be able to do justice describing them with words.

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The Misery Machine - Where is Cassie Renee Sheetz?

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