In 2016, Kristal Anne Reisinger moved to the tiny Colorado town of Crestone seeking spiritual enlightenment.
What she found there... no one knows for sure.
Instead, the 29-year-old from Denver was last seen around July 13, 2016, and has been missing ever since, her fate unknown after she attended a drum circle ceremony, joining a group gathered to party under the full summer moon.
At first local authorities treated Reisinger's disappearance as a missing person case, told she had previously gone on a two-week walkabout that put her out of touch. But as the months went by, and her 4-year-old daughter, Kasha, back in Denver continued to go without even a phone call from her mom, officials?including agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation?came to the conclusion that Reisinger was likely more than missing.
"We're not saying it is [foul play], but there is always that chance," Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick told Fox 31 Problem Solvers, the investigative team from Denver's Channel 2 News, in 2017. "For her to be gone this long is unusual, so that heightens the chances of foul play being involved. She didn't just take off and not come back. She left everything she owns behind."
In a town that's home to fewer than 150 people, you'd think it wouldn't be too hard to form a picture of what happened. There was even a $20,000 reward on offer. But the truth has proved elusive to this day.
"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," Saguache County Sheriff's deputy Wayne Clark also said in 2017.
But there are people who drift in and out of Crestone, a destination New Age spiritual center for travelers around the globe nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Thousands more have settled in the hills outside of town, some in commune-type compounds.
Reisinger had only been in town about a month before she disappeared. Kasha's father, Elijah Guana, told Problem Solvers that his ex was "really into Native American traditions, the nature of raising consciences and living a peaceful life. Her motto was 'do no harm.'"
"To this day," Guana added, "[Kasha] still asks for her, wants to call her on the phone. She doesn't really understand that she's gone. She thinks she's just somewhere."
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