MISSING: Melissa Casias

[00:00] Hi, Crime Junkies, it's Britt, and I have big news. One of my favorite seasonal shows, CounterClock, is back with a brand new season, and it is wild. Host Delia D'Ambra is digging into the 2008 Lane Bryant murders. I mean, this isn't just a recap. It is a reinvestigation. She's talking to law enforcement, people from the community, even sources who have never spoken publicly until now. And you know I love a show that asks all the questions. Listen to CounterClock Season 8 now, wherever you get your podcasts. [00:30] Hi, Crime Junkies.

I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. [00:34] Listen, last year, I received an email from a crime junkie. A woman named Jasmine wanted help because her aunt had recently vanished from Towson County, New Mexico. [00:45] And no one could agree on what happened to her. [00:49] But everyone did agree to speak with us because at the heart of it, [00:54] They all say they want to know what happened to her. [00:57] Her husband and her daughter think she left on her own. Her other family believes that she was a victim of foul play.

[01:03] And I'll be honest with you. [01:05] I don't know what to believe. [01:08] Each side believes their theory so fervently that I'm afraid my recounting of the facts as I know them are going to upset everyone. [01:15] Because, [01:16] Even the facts don't make sense. [01:19] But that usually means that we're missing something, a piece of the puzzle that maybe one of you out there hearing this right now might have. [01:28] And there is a small chance that. [01:30] That missing piece has bigger implications [01:33] than I could have ever imagined when I first read Jasmine's email last year.

[01:39] This is the story. [01:40] of Melissa Casillas. [01:42] Thank you. [02:13] On the afternoon of Thursday, June 26, 2025, 18-year-old Sierra Casillas is working at a coffee shop in Taos, New Mexico. [02:23] when she steps away to check a voicemail from her dad, Mark. [02:26] Now, his tone is tight, like something is off. He wanted her to know that he had just gotten a call from her mom's supervisor, who told him that Melissa hadn't shown up for work that day. Now, to Mark, that seems impossible, because he and Melissa both work at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

He is a superintendent. She's an administrative assistant. They share a car and commute together every single day, including that day. So how could she not be there? [02:53] But Sierra already knows something he doesn't, which is that Melissa drove the hour and 15 minutes back from the lab after dropping Mark off. [03:01] So she was there at the house at like 7.30, 7.45-ish when Sierra woke up that morning. [03:06] which was way out of the norm, by the way. But she told Sierra that she had forgotten her security badge. And since she was back home anyway, she would probably just work remotely or maybe even take the day off.

[03:17] Now, Sierra kind of assumes that she had done the latter because she saw her mom for a second time later in the day, just before one o'clock. [03:24] when she'd stop by the coffee shop Sierra works at to bring her lunch. [03:28] Plus, she texted her about a half an hour after that. [03:31] So all to say, like, even though her dad seems worried, Sierra wasn't. Now, since she's at least had some kind of communication with Melissa in the last hour, Mark asked her to text her mom. [03:42] And she's surprised when that little message bubble turns green.

[03:45] iPhone users know what that means. That message didn't deliver like normal. Phones like off or there is [03:51] No, like regular service, something. So she opens up the location app where she can normally see her mom's face pop up. [03:58] But this time, [03:59] Nothing loads. [04:01] Melissa's location has just... [04:02] stopped transmitting. [04:04] That's when the worry starts to creep in for her. [04:08] Because her mom never lets her phone die. [04:11] This is all concerning enough that Sierra decides to leave work early to make sure that her mom's okay.

[04:17] Their house is just a few miles away. She's there by like 3:30. [04:21] The family's white Jetta is there in the driveway. Their dogs are outside alone. [04:26] That is a little bit odd since they're really protective and usually stick to Melissa-like glue. [04:32] But inside, [04:33] Things are even stranger. [04:36] Melissa's not there. [04:37] but lots of her stuff is. On the kitchen table, Sierra finds her mom's work phone and badge, her keys, [04:45] And this small gold chain that her mother-in-law gave her that she normally wears like every single day.

Then in the loft area of their house, what connects to her bedroom, Sierra sees a paycheck that she had given her mom that afternoon to deposit for her. [05:00] And finally, she goes to her mom's office where she finds Melissa's purse, her wallet, both of her personal cell phones, her old phone and then the new one that she had just replaced it with. When Sierra picks them up, like this is when panic sets in because. [05:15] Both phones show a welcome screen, that backdrop that you see when a device is brand new.

Except we know these aren't new. [05:24] And Sierra realizes that they have been factory reset, like wiped clean. And when she tries to log into Melissa's iCloud, it seems like the password has been changed. [05:37] So from the house, Sierra frantically calls her dad. [05:41] He's not far behind. He'd caught a ride with a co-worker. So whatever's going on, they can figure it out together when he gets home. [05:47] And when he gets there, he walks through the property with a different lens. Mark told us that he is a hunter and a professional outfitter, someone who takes paying clients through backcountry terrain.

So he knows how to read the land. [06:00] And right away, he began looking for signs of a struggle. [06:03] Melissa's tough, and she's not someone who would have gone down without a fight. [06:08] If someone forced her out of the house, there would be evidence of it. [06:12] But there isn't. [06:13] Nothing is missing, and the only thing that catches his eye is an unfamiliar set of tire tracks in the driveway... [06:21] But they share that driveway with a neighbor. [06:23] Now, from what he can tell, he says they're still unknown, maybe not the neighbor's car, but they look like they might have come from a Jeep.

[06:29] Not knowing what else to do, Mark picks up the phone and calls New Mexico State Police Dispatch. [06:34] right around 5 m. [06:37] Mexico State Police, Tomas. [06:40] Yeah, this is Mark Casillas. You know what, we cannot locate my wife. We haven't heard from her all day from work. This morning was the last time I saw her work. My daughter saw her. [06:55] around 1 o'clock. All her stuff is here in the house. [06:59] but she's not here and it's just not like her to not call Wolfe and check in and [07:03] and take her purse and her phone.

And it looks like her phone has been, my daughter says, it looks like it's been reset. [07:10] But they're, you know, so we looked all around the house, everywhere on our property. We cannot find her or nothing. And I don't know what to do. The car that she was in is parked here at the house. [07:21] The keys are here. The house was locked. [07:24] everything was... [07:27] is here. You know what I mean? So she went from the closet, she came home, the car was here, parked in the yard, the keys are on the kitchen table.

[07:35] What's her name? Melissa Casillas. [07:39] And we called the hospital, Steve, because, I mean, you know, there's no one in there [07:45] you know, at all. [07:47] like that because we thought, well, maybe if something happened to her, her person, everything, so no one would be able to identify her. [07:54] And all you said she took was her phone? [07:58] She didn't take nothing. That's the thing. It's her phone and everything's here and she always takes her stuff with her. My daughter was trying to track her location and they always tracked each other.

[08:08] for [08:08] But her phone's wiped. The thing is, we can't get it, and she would never have... [08:13] wiped all the pictures off and all the information off of her phone. [08:18] Officers are dispatched to the Casillas home, and after getting a quick walkthrough of the house, they ask Mark and Sierra to lay out their day in detail. [08:27] Now, Mark says that he and Melissa left for work early that morning, as usual. And we're talking like early, early. His shift starts at 630 in the morning. And they live like over an hour away.

Yeah. And Melissa was behind the wheel. [08:39] And like she always did, she dropped him off at his building at around 6.15, and then she would drive to her building on campus and park her car there. [08:47] But today, Mark reminded Melissa that he needed to run to the bank at 11, so she agreed to bring the car back to him then. [08:54] Now, what he didn't know is that she turned around and went home. [08:58] We know Sierra woke up at 745 to find her mom there, which surprised her.

But when Sierra mentions that Melissa's excuse about being home was her forgotten badge, Mark says, wait, that can't be right. [09:11] He had watched Melissa hand her badge to security at the guard shack himself when they got to the lab that morning. [09:18] Mark says that he started calling and texting Melissa at around 10:45, but he wasn't getting anything back, which he says concerned him because, A, they normally talk throughout the day. [09:29] B, more than needing to go to the bank at 11, like she was his ride home, but she seemed to be MIA.

[09:35] So he eventually asked Sierra to pass along a question to her mom. Should he just find another ride home? And did they often communicate through Sierra like that? No, never. So that stood out, even if she didn't think too much of it at the time. But like now it does. [09:50] And so Sierra reaches out and she gets a response from her mom. Yes, tell him to find a ride home. [09:55] That was at 1.33, not too long after she'd stopped by to bring Sierra lunch. And why isn't she just answering Mark?

[10:04] This is a thing I couldn't tell you. I mean, I'd be pissed. Well, Mark says that it wasn't unheard of for him to get rides home with a colleague. So he says that, like, I mean, he doesn't say he was pissed or whatever. He just says he makes this plan. Didn't think much more of it. [10:17] Until Melissa's supervisor called him at around two, saying that she'd been a no-call-no-show, which... [10:23] He says that is what totally threw him for a loop. [10:26] Now, on the phone with dispatch, Mark had said that Melissa didn't take anything with her.

[10:32] But when he and Sierra actually look more carefully, a few small things are missing. [10:38] Melissa's toothbrush, her reading glasses, and sunglasses. And most significantly, what they calculate to be a 90-day supply of... [10:47] of her thyroid medication. - That doesn't exactly scream foul play. [10:51] No, but Melissa just leaving without a word to her family does not make sense either. [10:59] Mark tells police that they were supposed to leave the next morning for a camping trip. And beyond that, Melissa is a devoted mother. [11:07] Mark has three daughters from a previous marriage, but Sierra is Melissa's only child, and the two of them are close in a way that is hard to overstate, especially after Sierra survived a car accident in 2022 that killed her best friend.

[11:22] a girl who had been like a sister to her. And from that, Sierra suffered serious injuries, and the emotional damage lingered for longer than the physical ones. Like, it had been a rough few years. [11:35] But things were finally looking up. [11:37] Sierra had just graduated high school. She was set to move to Albuquerque in the fall for beauty school so she could become an esthetician. [11:45] And Melissa had planned to rent a two-bedroom apartment there to, like, stay with her for the first couple of months just to, like, get her settled.

[11:51] And Mark told us that he planned to kind of go back and forth. [11:54] Plus, he tells police that they have a strong marriage. Melissa has never mentioned wanting to leave him, like never mentioned wanting to leave the girls. None of it. Like, this just doesn't make sense. Right. So why would she walk away from all of that? That's the question that hangs in the air as family members who had gotten word about her being missing start arriving. [12:14] Like Melissa's parents and her brother, her sister Trudy, [12:18] and Trudy's daughter, Jasmine.

Melissa's parents, Jose and Joanne Mondragon, live nearby, although they had been in Albuquerque visiting Trudy that day. [12:28] But once they heard what was going on from Sierra, they were in the car. [12:32] And these are longtime Crime Junkie listeners. So even in shock, they said that they felt like they were prepared and knew what to do. [12:41] They worked the phones during the two and a half hour drive to Taos, calling relatives and hospitals, hoping that Melissa would be home safe by the time that they got there. [12:50] Instead, they pulled up to a property bathed in police lights.

[12:54] and they were told to wait outside, away from Mark and Sierra. [12:59] Now they don't believe for a second that Melissa left on her own. Something bad must have happened. [13:06] And they already have someone in mind, Diego Martinez, who is Sierra's ex-boyfriend. [13:12] Now, Diego had been behind the wheel in the crash that killed Sierra's best friend. [13:17] He suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash, and according to the family, his behavior became frightening. In 2024, Sierra took out a restraining order against him, citing physical abuse, break-ins, stolen keys, and threats against her and loved ones.

[13:33] including specific threats against Melissa. [13:37] Diego had also sent Melissa sexually explicit text messages. And did Marc and Sierra bring him up at any point too? Not that I know of. [13:46] Still, though, from the very first night, Diego's name is already on the table. But before that thread can even go anywhere, something else comes up. [13:55] Jasmine has been blasting missing person posts on social media since the moment she understood what was happening. [14:01] And almost immediately, someone had reached out. [14:04] And this isn't just anybody. This is a guy named Lloyd who has known both Melissa and Mark since they were children.

[14:11] And he tells Melissa's brother that he saw Melissa earlier that afternoon walking along a highway close to her house, Highway 518. [14:20] in a spot that is just a couple of miles away. [14:23] He says that she was wearing a white sweater and she was kind of like stumbling or staggering. And there was this old blue Dodge truck nearby sort of lurking. [14:33] Now, this is where the cohesive story I wish I could tell you fractures right down the middle. [14:41] Because from this point on, almost every significant moment in this case is going to come in at least two versions.

[14:48] with plenty of contradictions along the way. [14:52] So let me just lay out the sides for you right now. In one corner, you have Mark and all four of his daughters, including Sierra. [15:00] I'm going to call them the Casillas household, even though they don't all live there. [15:04] In the other corner, [15:06] You have Melissa's parents, some siblings, her niece Jasmine, some friends. [15:10] And I'm going to call them the Mondragons, even though not everyone on that side carries that name. [15:15] And as far as the Mondragons are concerned, this moment, when this tip from Lloyd comes in, is the exact moment that they begin to become suspicious.

Not of Diego, who they'd first told police about. [15:31] but of Mark. [15:33] For decades, some cold cases have been reduced to files in a cabinet, but not anymore. I'm Ashley Flowers, and me and my team on the deck have been traveling across the country to report on these forgotten cases. And in some instances, it's resulted in these cases being solved after decades. [15:52] Join me every Wednesday as we revive these stories one card at a time. Listen to the deck now, wherever you get your podcasts. [16:04] When that tip from Lloyd comes in, Jasmine rushes to tell police what he saw.

They have to check this out, go to where he saw her. She could be hurt. She could be, Jasmine doesn't know, but this at least is a trail that they can follow, right? [16:20] But instead of being excited about the lead, [16:23] Mark immediately shuts it down. He tells officers there's no way that this was Melissa, because [16:29] She wasn't wearing a white sweater that day. [16:32] Sierra remembers that she had on a light turquoise top when she saw her like around lunchtime. OK, she could have changed. And also, he says, Melissa doesn't have a limp.

So in his mind, the top's neither here nor there because he's like, whoever this woman is that's like stumbling or staggering, this is definitely not my wife. Unless it is. And she got hurt, which is like all the more reason to go check it out and make sure it's not her. Listen, I know. But like, here's the thing. [17:02] the [17:03] is that police [17:04] Just go along with it. [17:05] No need to check that out. Mark says it's not her. Moving on. You're kidding. [17:11] I wish I was exaggerated.

I mean, what if she got the limp because she jumped out of a car? I mean, she could have been drugged. The girl could have tripped over a pebble while just, like, out on a walk. Yeah. Like, I could talk about this for hours, and we're going to get into it more later, I promise. But they decide not to look. [17:27] And in the meantime, that night, when the Mondragons get to talk to Mark, [17:33] They're expecting a husband [17:35] Out of his mind with worry. Yeah. Instead, what they get is anger.

Mark tells them that he and Melissa had gotten into an argument that morning before they left for work. [17:47] He had caught her vaping. [17:49] They bicker throughout the entire drive to the lab, [17:52] And when she dropped him off, she told him to find his own effing ride home. [17:58] Wait. [17:59] Mark didn't mention any of that to police. Oh, no. And he doesn't for a while. [18:04] But if the Mondragon's account is accurate, it means that Mark knew from the jump that Melissa wasn't planning to drive him home.

Not because of anything that Sierra later relayed in the day. [18:16] And on top of that, [18:17] They say that Mark starts badmouthing Melissa almost immediately, telling them that Melissa had been on a roll with F-Ups lately, that she had destroyed their finances, accumulating debt, getting backed up on tax payments. And are police searching the place at all or are they just taking all these statements that first night? [18:37] No, they actually searched. Mark lets police, including lead investigator, Agent Ezekiel Esquivel-Mata, [18:44] He goes through the house and like they take photographs.

[18:47] And while there was nothing that stood out to the first responding officer who did that like once over of the place... [18:53] You know, when you come at it with an investigator's eye and you like zoom in, [18:57] There is more that you pick up on. [19:00] Like they hone in on a pair of Mark's hunting boots sitting on his and Melissa's bedroom floor next to a fish tank. [19:07] some of the mud on them, [19:08] Looks fresh. [19:10] But Mark insists that he hadn't worn those boots in ages.

[19:14] And he points to what he says is proof, a spider web inside. Nobody put their foot in there recently. [19:20] Except when agents look, [19:22] They don't see any spider webs. For a man who says that he's been at work and inside all day, fresh mud on hunting boots is a hard thing to explain away. [19:33] Then, when agents review the scene photos the next morning, this is now Friday, June 27th, [19:40] they get more suspicious. [19:42] Right next to one of those boots... [19:45] is a dried drop. [19:47] of something.

Something that looks an awful lot like it could be blood. [19:53] So when the Mondragons and Melissa's friends are out canvassing neighborhoods and hanging out missing person flyers, [20:00] Mark goes in to talk to police. [20:03] Agents put the photos in front of him. They asked him about the stain. [20:07] But Mark says he's sure that's not blood. [20:10] But he's getting like more and more agitated as the questioning continues until finally he asks if he should get a lawyer. [20:17] And he just ends it right there. [20:20] But they detain him and seize his phone.

[20:23] Which is worth noting because despite what he apparently later tells his daughters, he did not hand it over voluntarily, according to what police told us. [20:32] They have to apply for a search warrant to get its contents by doing a forensic download, which... [20:38] That's going to take some time. But one thing they're able to do really quickly while he's at the station that day is verify his alibi. [20:46] The lab confirms that he was at work that day, and even his drive home is accounted for because of that co-worker who gave him a ride.

He confirms that trip. [20:55] However, [20:56] That doesn't close anything out. [20:58] No, it doesn't seem like he could have physically done anything to Melissa. [21:02] But that doesn't prove that he wasn't involved or that he doesn't know more than he's letting on. [21:08] So police get a search warrant for the Casius home. [21:11] They take Melissa's phones, they take Mark's boots, and they run a presumptive test on that stain by the fish tank. [21:18] Which? [21:19] comes back positive for blood. [21:22] So they send out swabs of that for further testing.

[21:26] Meanwhile, the Mondragons decide to organize a search party, which kicks off at Melissa's parents' house on Saturday, June 28th. [21:35] Now, Mark says he didn't even know that that was happening. I guess he stumbled across news of it on Facebook. [21:40] But once he does, he shows up. [21:43] Not to help them look for his missing wife, though. [21:46] According to the Mondragons, he comes to tell them that he's figured it all out, and he is sure that Melissa left on her own. [21:54] He says he'd spend some time going through her paperwork and discovered that their finances were in.

[21:59] far worse shape than he had actually realized. Is he basically showing up and saying, don't look for her again? [22:07] I don't think those words, don't look for her, came out of his mouth. [22:11] But he is there to tell them why he thinks she left on her own. [22:16] told them about the finances that like he mentioned it that very first night. Right. But now he wants them to understand like the severity of it, which he says he is just now finally like getting a good grasp of, though, like the signs seem to have been there.

[22:31] So starting a couple of years back, that's when Mark says he got this humiliating wake-up call. [22:37] He had taken some co-workers out to lunch, tried to pay, and his cards were declined. He looked into it and learned that his checking and credit accounts were overdrawn, and that his savings account had been drained. [22:50] When he confronted Melissa about it, she told him that she'd use the savings to pay their taxes. [22:55] An explanation that he accepted. [22:58] But it rattled him enough that he decided to separate their finances.

[23:03] He told us that he took over the major bills like vehicle payments, health insurance, and he left Melissa to handle the smaller monthly expenses. [23:12] But by June of 2025, there were at least two huge signs that things had only gotten worse. [23:20] One, their wages were being garnished. And two, their security clearances at the lab had been suspended because of their deteriorating financial situation. [23:32] Melissa even had to move workspaces because she no longer had the clearance required for the office where she'd been working. Then how can he claim that he didn't know how bad things were?

I mean, he's more saying that he didn't realize how catastrophic it had gotten, which is kind of hard for the Mondragons to believe because the couple had been hit with more than a dozen lawsuits or claims over the years. [23:57] mostly tied to unpaid debts, business disputes, and family matters. [24:02] But he maintains that he was in the dark on a lot of this stuff, that Melissa was like intercepting legal paperwork and hiding letters from attorneys or whatever. But that doesn't make any sense. Like, why would she want to do that?

I have no idea. [24:15] But... [24:15] Either way, like it seems like all of this financial stuff was coming to a head because he says that when he confronted her about the wage garnishment and asked how they were going to afford Sierra's beauty school, Melissa told him that she had gotten a lawyer. [24:29] and that they had an upcoming court date to appeal a lawsuit judgment. [24:34] But now, [24:35] He just found out apparently that wasn't true. [24:38] There was no ongoing appeal. And in all her paperwork, he also discovered that she had applied for a personal loan to cover Sierra's tuition financially.

[24:47] and been rejected. [24:48] And based on the dates of things, it looks like she had just gotten that rejection days before she disappeared. [24:56] Now, on top of that, [24:58] Mark tells everyone that things weren't going well for Melissa professionally. [25:03] Besides the clearance issue, she had also been flagged for performance problems at work. [25:08] So, [25:09] Mark's theory that he is telling everyone about is that the pressure must have finally just reached a boiling point and Melissa bolted before it all came crashing down. [25:19] But, but... [25:21] He also predicts that she's going to be home before the weekend is over because she has an important work meeting on Monday.

[25:27] Or, you know what, he floats another idea. Maybe Melissa loves Sierra so much that she left on purpose so that Mark could declare her dead in a few months and then collect money. [25:37] her life insurance and like [25:38] set Sierra up financially. What? Or maybe she's just hiding out at her best friend's house. [25:47] Someone should probably check there. So, his theory is... [25:50] Everything? Everything but foul play, it seems. Where is he saying that she actually is, though? Like, where does he think she is at the most likely place?

I don't think anyone gets, like, a clear answer about that. That's the thing. [26:05] To the Mondragons, the whole thing sounds less like a husband trying to find his wife and more like somebody... [26:10] trying to rapidly workshop explanations. [26:14] On top of that, while he's coming up with all the ways that she could have just walked off on her own, he finds time to criticize their search efforts, saying that they're looking in the wrong places, places Melissa wouldn't go because she didn't know them well. [26:27] And he keeps bringing up his confirmed alibi, even though nobody is asking him about it.

[26:35] So, being the crime junkies that the Mondragons are... [26:39] they start recording their interactions with Mark in the one-party consent state of New Mexico. [26:47] Starting with a call that Trudy made to check on Sierra the next day, Sunday. [26:52] And she shared that recording. [26:54] with us. We know exactly what's going on, but I'm not telling no one shit. Okay. Well, as long as you're sharing that with the police, that's amazing. Well, you know what I told the cops today that we have information. They're not even calling me.

I sat there and knocked on their door yesterday, would not answer the thing. And I finally told the detective, if you're going to go there, I said, I have a lot of information, but if I'm going to go there and you're going to start interrogating me again, I'm not going. [27:19] Well, we need to be concentrating on... We need to be concentrating on finding her. What's that? We need to find her. She's not there, Trudy. No, no, no. I'm saying... No, what I'm saying is... [27:32] It doesn't help if you're locked up at the police station.

You need to be out there. Well, you need to be out there doing. I went over there. I didn't know. You guys never told me that this was going on, that this legal search was going on. Yes. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on over here? I never knew about that. [27:49] I never knew about any of that. No one's telling me what you guys are doing. I could be directing and say, no, focus on this area. Focus like I did the other day. You're seeing people all over that don't make no sense.

Well, we are very open for you to share with us what you want, what you're willing to. Because, you know what? Awesome. [28:10] And then I understand that they said there was some sort of a drop of blood in here. Bullshit, there's no blood in here. [28:19] Okay, okay, okay. The time frame does not match. The only time she could have been hurt by me because I was identified in Los Alamos. You know, you were at work. [28:30] Watch, Trini, let me say something. So maybe you'll understand this. It's so simple.

If there was a drop of blood, if there was blood in this house, that means I would have had to hurt Melissa before we left to work. [28:42] Right? Correct? No. That's why they let me out over there when they had me over there. I was up in Los Alamos. Obviously, they determined everything. Yes. No, I know you were at work. Exactly. Melissa was... [28:56] fine at one o'clock in the afternoon. Yes, I know that. You were at work. No, no, I know that. They should have had a gallon of blood on the floor.

No. Right. No. And it makes sense. This call goes on for a little while longer. No matter how upset Mark gets, Trudy tries to keep calm. [29:17] And, you know, she's not being confrontational at all. [29:20] She is in information gathering mode. She wants to keep him talking. [29:24] And that's when he says something that catches her really off guard. Honestly, one of her biggest takeaways is this. [29:32] And then I changed the locks to all the doors so she would have to. She cannot come in with the key and grab herself and bail.

She would have to contact Sierra to open up the thing. We put cameras up and everything to see. Oh, OK. And you know what? That's a good idea. The cameras, because he changed the locks three days after she vanished. Yeah. [29:53] Why would he even need to do that if she left her keys behind? Dude, that's the thing. Like, I don't think he ever explains that. I'm like, she left her keys. She couldn't get in anyway. I know. Also, I still don't get where she would go. Like, she didn't take her phone.

It sounds like she couldn't have taken any money. She's got... [30:10] nothing with her. Well, I mean, not nothing. Remember, she will, according to Mark and Sierra, she's missing from the house is what her toothbrush, her reading glasses, her sunglasses, [30:18] And then that 90 day supply of her thyroid medication. Even that is like a little weird though, right? Like, [30:23] That's not exactly like a disappearing packing list. Well, the Mondragon say that from the start, they think that Mark was trying to plant the idea that someone came to get Melissa.

[30:36] pointing to those unfamiliar tire tracks in the driveway. Remember, as evidence that another man had picked her up. [30:42] But the thing is, like, he doesn't say who that would be, though. I mean, is he implying that she, like, left him for another man? It's hard to tell what he's saying because Mark has offered a lot of theories over the months about where she might have gone. Florida, Arizona, Washington... [30:59] Maybe she left with the help from a contractor that she was having an affair with. Wait, she was having an affair?

No, that's the thing. Not that anyone knows of. I think he's just guessing. [31:08] says, you know, it could have been a contractor or maybe a hunter she knew or a photographer from Colorado. Sometimes he insinuates to the family that he knows exactly where she is or who she's with, but he won't give names, which feels so weird to them and weird to me even. [31:24] Even the theory that she would leave him for another man in general, though, [31:28] I can't really get my head around from his talent. [31:32] Because in his first interview, he told detectives that their marriage was great.

[31:35] There was nothing wrong there. [31:38] But that's not what police heard from other people. [31:41] some of whom describe Mark as egotistical and controlling, a man who allegedly emotionally and financially abused Melissa. And people have different understandings of Mark and Melissa's finances. Some say... [31:54] that she was burdened with paying for everything even though Mark made more money. [31:59] So sure, she might have been in debt, but like in their eyes, that's really Mark's fault. [32:05] And yeah, there were lawsuits and stuff, but records show that the majority of those were against Mark alone.

[32:11] Some people even say that the couple had talked about splitting up. [32:15] After Sierra graduated, [32:17] And Mark had basically said that everything was his. So Melissa should be ready to just move out. So when Melissa was talking about her plans to stay in Albuquerque with Sierra, it sounded to them more like a marital separation than just like this mom helping her daughter get settled, which is what Mark was saying. And Sierra had just graduated, right? Like nearly a month before this. So the timing is interesting. [32:42] which [32:43] Police obviously confront him with.

Now, initially, he tells them none of this is true. [32:49] And he told us the same thing. [32:51] though he acknowledges that Melissa had told people that stuff. [32:56] But according to Agent Mata, Mark ultimately confirmed it to police, admitted that he had encouraged Melissa to leave if she wasn't happy. [33:06] I mean, so... [33:07] Maybe this is why he seems so confident in this walking away theory. [33:13] told her to go. [33:14] Maybe. But then why won't he tell people who he thinks she's with if he thinks that he even has like a sliver of an idea?

[33:21] I mean, here's one of the stranger parts of this story. [33:25] Mark starts putting up these... [33:27] mysterious posts, like coded language, that he says only Melissa could understand. A way to let her know that he's tracking her. Tracking her? How? [33:38] Or to where? I don't know. He is not an easy guy to get a straight answer from. Well, and like thinking back, is he talking about like hunting tracking? Like he's like... [33:50] onto her trail somehow? That, yes. And listen, [33:53] Some of her trail that day has already been confirmed by police.

[33:58] The Casillas home didn't have surveillance cameras or anything like that, but there were some outside the shopping plaza where Sierra worked. [34:05] And there is footage of Melissa alone, seemingly fine, going to drop off lunch for her daughter. [34:13] At 12.56, Melissa's white sedan comes in hot to a handicapped parking spot. Like she bumps into that car. [34:20] I don't know what I want to call it a guardrail, but you know, a parking stop. Yeah. And it's so hard that the whole car kind of shakes. So she like backs up a little bit.

[34:27] And then like 10 seconds later, she gets out of the car and calmly starts walking down the sidewalk with a sandwich for Sierra in one hand. [34:35] Then another camera picks her up in the plaza. We get a better look at her. She's in that turquoise T-shirt with a sweatshirt or something like that tied around her waist and jeans. And then a minute later, she is back on that same camera walking back to her car. No sandwich anymore, but she's holding a piece of paper in her hand, that check that Sierra asked her to cash for her.

[34:54] Now, the parking lot camera picks her back up getting into her car. [34:58] But the video cuts off before we actually see her pulling away. [35:03] So, [35:04] I don't know what direction she went in, but she had to have made it home after this since her car, her keys, her wallet, everything was back there at the house. [35:14] But I don't think Mark believes anything happened to Melissa there at the house. [35:20] His searches seem to be more focused in the spot along Highway 518 [35:26] where Lloyd spotted Melissa.

Wait! [35:29] I thought he was adamant that could not have been Melissa. Okay. So... [35:34] Mark told us that when that lead came in that first night when police were there, he was totally unaware that the tipster was someone who actually knew Melissa. [35:46] He dismissed it because he didn't want investigators going on this like wild goose chase. [35:51] Again, I still think the reason he dismissed it doesn't make sense, whatever. But then he said at some point over the first couple of days, he learned that Lloyd was the caller.

And so I guess by Tuesday, July 1st, enough time had passed that he's at least willing to entertain the idea that maybe it could have been. [36:08] So he drives out to that stretch of highway looking for circling birds, which is like a potential sign of human remains. Right. But that means he's now on board with a foul play theory. No, I know. Mark told our reporter, Nina, that he never thought Melissa met with foul play. [36:27] But... [36:28] If Lloyd's tip is true, and if Melissa had been injured or abducted, she wouldn't have made it far from that spot.

Like it's summer. It's hot. [36:38] remains attract scavenging birds. [36:40] That's why he looked there on that Tuesday morning. Like, you know, in an absence of knowing what happened, maybe everything's possible, even if it's not what he believed. [36:49] Now, he told us that when he went out that way, he happened to see Lloyd outside in his yard. And so he decided to stop by and speak with him. [36:59] Police still haven't reached out to Lloyd, by the way. This is five days after Melissa was last seen. [37:04] And when Lloyd lays out what he actually saw, this is when something shifts for Mark.

Because Lloyd says that he never described Melissa as stumbling or staggering when he spoke to her brother. [37:16] He tells Mark that Melissa was just... [37:18] their one minute [37:19] Go on the next. [37:20] And Lloyd didn't actually see her get into that blue truck that he saw or anything like that. But that is kind of the implication that he's making. Wait, so... [37:28] Does Mark think this was Melissa or not? Well, now he seems more convinced that that was her. [37:36] And if she wasn't injured or acting odd, it actually plays into his theory that she wasn't in distress.

[37:43] Left. [37:44] And what do the Mondragons think? [37:46] They've always felt like this could have been her stumbling or not. [37:51] But even if she wasn't stumbling, the Mondragons still believe that she could have been in danger when she was out there. [37:57] They think everything about this is screaming foul play. They don't believe for a second that she left willingly. [38:04] Every theory that Mark has about her walking away is just that, a theory. [38:09] and a constantly changing one at that. [38:11] With no proof. So after this search, when Mark comes to them again, he's like, I found something that makes me even more positive that she left on her own.

[38:21] I imagine that they're pretty skeptical. [38:24] But this time, it's not just stories or his word. [38:28] This time, [38:30] Mark has proof. Armed with information from Lloyd about exactly where he last saw Melissa and the blue truck, [38:38] Mark had taken Sierra out to retrace Lloyd's steps. [38:42] And in essence, he's trying to retrace Melissa's. Not with old school hunting tactics. He was looking for any house with a surveillance camera pointed at the road. [38:51] and you'd hit paydirt. [38:54] He finds a video [38:55] from a house off of Highway 518.

[38:58] that you have to see to believe. [39:01] The timestamp is 2.18 m. on June 26th. [39:06] When Melissa... [39:07] alive and well, not stumbling, [39:10] comes into camera frame. [39:12] She's alone and walking at a brisk pace, not as that she's scared or anything, just [39:16] purposefully. [39:18] She's wearing what looks to me like the same outfit we saw her in when she dropped lunch off to Sierra. [39:22] But now her hair is pulled back and she's carrying a small backpack on her shoulders. [39:28] For the Casillaside, this video is proof that Melissa walked away on her own two feet by choice.

[39:37] And Mark told us he wasn't thinking about vindication or exonerating himself at that moment. [39:42] But it's hard to ignore what this video means, that they're [39:46] Might be. [39:47] A whole nother side to this story. [39:50] A completely different narrative about how and why Melissa went missing. [39:56] that will have you questioning everything. [40:01] Summer breaks should be fun, but it is also important to keep young minds active. Even though my daughter's out of preschool, we are helping her all summer continue to learn and study and just not give up building that muscle.

And IXL is a great way to help kids stay engaged and avoid losing progress between school years. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts in the S. And as an award-winning online learning platform, IXL helps kids truly understand what they're learning. [40:31] confidence, or strengthening writing skills. Studies show kids who use IXL score higher on tests. Proven in all 50 states, from pre-K through 12th grade, IXL offers personalized, interactive content for each child's level and pace. It is an easy way to support learning now through the summer and into the next school year.

Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And Crime Junkie listeners, you can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when you [41:01] com slash crimejunkie. Visit com slash crimejunkie to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. [41:12] Just when everyone was beginning to believe that maybe something happened to Melissa in her home, video footage emerged that proved Melissa was out of her house and walking down Highway 518. [41:24] alive and well [41:27] Something her husband, Mark Casillas, has been saying since early on.

[41:30] And his version of events reads like a completely different book. [41:35] Not a shady, callous husband who had his wife killed, but a frustrated one who says that his wife abandoned him and their daughter, leaving behind not so much as a note or explanation. [41:48] Even then, though, Mark says that some of the allegations against him aren't just misinterpreted. [41:54] They're downright wrong. [41:55] So let's go back to that first night when police were there and the Mondragon showed up and told us that Mark was hostile and badmouthing Melissa.

[42:04] Mark told us. [42:05] That never happened. He says that he didn't speak with them at all that night. He was completely focused on dealing with police. [42:13] Then there's that argument that we're told he and Melissa had that morning about the e-cigarette, right? He like caught her vaping. It takes him a few interviews to come clean about any relationship issues to police. But he says that he only withheld that information because he wanted them focused on finding Melissa, not eyeballing him. [42:31] He also says that this fight or argument wasn't some big blow up, just this minor marital spat.

And he denies that Melissa ever cursed at him or told him to find his own ride home. But didn't that come from him in the first place? Well, that's what the Mondragons say, that he told them that. [42:48] But when we talked to him, he said, no, that's not true. He never said anything like that. [42:53] We also asked him about an early theory he apparently mentioned, the one that really rubbed some people the wrong way, right? About Melissa making herself disappear so that he could declare her dead and then get the life insurance money for Sierra.

Now, Mark, to us, never really confirmed or denied whether or not he said that. But what he did tell us is that he knows a person has to be missing for years before any of that becomes legally relevant anyway. [43:23] anymore. [43:24] She used to, but that policy expired years ago, though I'm not really sure if Mark knew that. [43:31] And Melissa's financial records show just how bad things had gotten. [43:37] Investigators find out that she had negative account balances that swallowed up half her paycheck the second they hit. [43:43] and maxed out credit cards that she hadn't made payments on [43:47] in months.

[43:48] And let's talk about the physical evidence. [43:50] Like the muddy boots, right? [43:52] Mark says that he had recently asked Melissa to refill the fish tank, which was right above where the boots were sitting. And so he thinks that maybe she might have spilled water and rewetted like old dried mud that was already on them from like a previous hunt. [44:06] which investigators think is plausible. And the boots mattered like a lot less once his alibi was confirmed though, right? Yeah. And like the same logic I think then extends to the blood.

If... [44:18] "it's even human blood." - Right. - We actually still don't know that for sure, because what we know is they did that presumptive test, it is blood. [44:26] Police still didn't have the lab results back when we last spoke to them. But Mark is saying, listen, that could have come from processing game or even from their dog. [44:36] But either way, it's hard to make it mean much when we now know, to your point, Melissa was clearly alive and walking on her own. [44:44] after she left the house.

Well, and even if it does come back as her blood, like, she lived there. And there's that, right. It's not like it's like this pool or anything. [44:55] So Blood and Boots, [44:56] Put those aside. Mm-hmm. [44:58] There's also the tech of it all. [45:00] Investigators find out that Melissa emailed a co-worker the morning of June 26th saying that she'd be late because something had come up with her daughter, Sierra. [45:11] That wasn't true. So it seems like Melissa was telling everyone a different story so that she could make herself free that day.

[45:21] Mark TBD exactly what she said to him in the car on the drive there. But like he seemed to think that she was going to be at work. She told Sierra that she'd come home because she forgot her badge, which she had with her. We know. [45:33] But she told her job something was up with her daughter. [45:36] and then what they pull from her phones. This is the detail more than anything else. [45:42] that makes me think Melissa had some kind of plan. [45:46] Because forensic downloads show that both of her phones...

[45:50] they weren't wiped clean at the same time. The older phone that she had, the one that she'd already replaced, [45:57] That was factory reset at 8.02 m. [46:01] And then her newer phone was wiped at 1.38 m. I obsessed over this because my gut tells me that if... [46:10] Someone else wiped the phones. [46:13] I would think that they would have wiped them both at the same time, right? I mean, unless they didn't know that she had two phones, like wiped one thinking it was the phone. [46:22] realize their mistake and had to come back and wipe the second one like we know that melissa must have reset the first phone at home right because remember she's there when sierra woke up at around 7 45 right so the one that she doesn't use like in my mind the one she doesn't use or she's not going to need that day gets reset in the morning just get it over with then she has her phone through the day as she's like bringing sierra lunch right you can't even say someone else has her phone is like sending these messages we have her on video bringing sierra lunch at one [46:49] Then Melissa sent her daughter that last text message at 1.33.

And I mapped everything. Like, all of that lines up to where... [46:58] If Melissa is at home when that reset happens at 138,000, [47:03] then she could have very realistically [47:06] left then and then been at the spot she is seen at on Highway 518 on camera at 218. [47:13] That's all the things that make me believe like it had to be her who reset them. [47:17] But why did she reset them? This is the thing. I don't know. [47:24] I mean, I feel like there's two scenarios, right? Like if she reset them, two scenarios.

[47:28] And like in those scenarios, it's her walking away. Right. Like so one, [47:31] She took her own life, in which case, [47:34] I don't know why you would have to wipe all of your devices. I mean, unless you were hiding stuff you didn't want anyone to ever find out about. But, like, wouldn't you leave a note for that? Like, to me, this is, like, if you're so overwhelmed by, like, [47:46] your marriage or your financial situation or whatever like [47:49] Why would you leave this mystery behind? So to me, this doesn't make a ton of sense.

[47:53] So the second option is she walked away to start over, to live somewhere else, be with someone else, whatever that looks like. [48:03] And in that scenario... [48:04] maybe something on those phones would have told people exactly where she was going or like given away a plan that she didn't want found out. And have police... [48:14] pulled her iCloud data? - No, this is where it goes like a layer deeper. They tried. - Okay. - She didn't just wipe her phones. Apple told them that [48:24] Her backup had been completely scrubbed [48:27] too, like her iCloud, with nothing left to recover.

[48:32] I didn't even realize that was... [48:34] Possible? Is that actually possible? It is. But it's not as simple, right? [48:38] Agent Ezekiel Esquivel-Mata says that that level of digital erasure takes intention. Like it's more than just hitting a few buttons on an iPhone. [48:48] So he does think, though, that like Melissa would know how to do it, or I assume at a minimum could Google it. This is not like an impossible thing to do. It's like supposed to be your data. You should be able to erase it. Right. So is everyone pretty much in agreement that Melissa is the one that wiped everything?

[49:06] Not necessarily. No, like the Mondragons really wanted investigators to geofence the Casillas home to see if maybe other devices connected, like either to her device or the Internet or whatever, Google around that time. [49:19] But Google actually stopped providing that data to law enforcement in 2024. But they're really adamant they don't think that Melissa would have done this. They say that she was very sentimental, like the kind of person who held on to every photo and every memory. [49:34] And so they can't imagine a world where she would decide to erase all of that.

[49:39] And really, that disagreement over what Melissa would or wouldn't do, over who she really was... [49:47] I think that's really at the heart of everything. Because the tension between the two sides in this case goes way beyond the investigation. [49:57] Mark and his daughters say that the Mondragon spent years shunning Melissa over her separation from the Jehovah's Witness faith, that they barely knew Sierra, didn't even meet her until she was a few years old. [50:08] And they claim that they are only now presenting themselves as people who were like central to her life.

[50:14] But we asked the Mondragons about this, and they totally deny that. They say that Melissa was very present in their lives. There's regular calls, overnight visits, helping with medical appointments like