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Colorado Mother Vanishes After Reportedly Attending Full Moon Drum Circle
Kristal Reisinger, whose disappearance was explored in the podcast “Up and Vanished,” went missing after telling her landlord she had been drugged and possibly sexually assaulted.
Kristal Reisinger moved to the small town of Crestone, Colorado — the “New Age Religious capital of the world” — in search of enlightenment.
The mother of one and reported clairvoyant was looking to pursue a more spiritual life, but while residing in an apartment at the heart of town, she seemingly vanished without a trace.
Reisinger was reported missing on July 30, 2016. While law enforcement has been unable to determine the exact day she vanished, there were reports that she was seen at a full moon drum circle ceremony on July 18, but it has not been confirmed.
Friends and family grew concerned after they did not hear from Reisinger for a number of days, and when they arrived at her apartment in search of the missing 29-year-old, they found she had left behind several personal items, including her clothing, cell phone, medicine, and computer.
There was no sign of a struggle, and the front door was locked.
Fresh food was in the fridge, and new beauty products were discovered in the shower, her surrogate father, Rodney Ervin, told Denver Fox affiliate KDVR. She also departed without contacting her former boyfriend, Elijah Guana, and their 4-year-old daughter, Kasha, who were living a few hours north in Denver.
“She didn't just take off and not come back. She left everything she owns behind,” Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick told the outlet.
The case, which was covered on the podcast “Up and Vanished” and is reexplored in the Oxygen series of the same name, is still unsolved, but authorities believe foul play is involved.
“This is an odd one. This is a hard case. She was known by many, but nobody knew her well enough to know her daily routines,” Warwick told The Denver Post. “We have some persons of interest.”
In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Reisinger had “been partying a lot,” friend and landlord Ara McDonald told KDVR. McDonald also received complaints from tenants that “sketchy” people were hanging around Reisinger’s apartment.
One of McDonald’s final conversations with Reisinger occurred when was she went to collect July rent, and Reisinger answered the door crying. She said she had been at a party the night before, where someone had “given [her] a bunch of drugs” and possibly “taken advantage of her,” she told KDVR.
After Reisinger vanished, McDonald located her cell phone in the apartment and listened to her messages, which seemed “like she was on her way someplace. She needed to go someplace,” McDonald said.
Several searches have been conducted to locate the missing mother, but none have turned up any new leads, Warwick told KDVR.
“Someone who went to the drum circle ceremony knows what happened that night — that there are people in Crestone who have information which can crack open this case,” Warwick said.
If you have any information in connection to the case, please call the sheriff's office at 719-655-2525.
Tune in to “Up and Vanished” Saturdays at 7/6c on Oxygen.
