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Missing

Karlie Gusé

Did marijuana and paranoia play a role in this disappearance?

  • Last updated: August 2, 2024
  • Chalfant, CA
  • October 13, 2018

Overview of Karlie Gusé

Karlie Gusé was just beginning her young adult life. Uncomfortable questions still remain about her disappearance.

Karlie

Karlie Gusé lived with her father Zachary Gusé, stepmother Melissa Gusé, and two younger brothers, Branson and Kole. in a rural California neighborhood. She's described as being sweet and absolutely loved her brothers more than anything.

Leading up to Karlie's disappearance, her friends described her as having "episodes" where she was terrified that someone was tracking her phone. Regardless of her fears, she never said who she believed was tracking her device.

October 12, 2018


On Friday night, October 12, 2018, Karlie asked her parents Melissa and Zachary if she could go to her high school's football game. They agreed — not knowing that Karlie planned to skip the football game with her boyfriend, Donald, to go to a party on Dixon Lane instead.

While at the party, Melissa called her to see if she needed a ride home from the football game, but Karlie said that Donald was going to take her home.

Then, Karlie smoked marijuana.

It's possible that the marijuana she smoked wasn't the purest form of the substance because Karlie had a bad reaction.

“She hadn’t smoked in a while,” her boyfriend, Donald Arrowood III, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It could’ve triggered something.”

Soon after smoking, Karlie grew incredibly paranoid and was scared of the music, and scared of Donald. The pair went outside for some fresh air, where Donald later said that she freaked out when he tried to hug her, and started running down the street in the pitch black — telling Donald not to follow her.

Before getting picked up, Karlie and Donald were outside trying to get some fresh air, because she was "scared of the music."

Something terrified Karlie the point where she frantically called Melissa back around 8:45pm and no longer cared about pretending to be at a football game. She asked to be picked up near where the party was happening.

Melissa remembers Karlie saying: "Come get me. I'm booking it down Dixon Lane. Hurry, hurry, hurry, I'm scared."

By the time Melissa drove over there, she found Karlie walking in the darkness. She says Karlie was pale and her pupils were really dilated.

Unfortunately, the car ride home wasn't easy.

Melissa says even though she was safe in the backseat, Karlie was uneasy. She would jump from seat to seat, saying she was worried the car would kill her and repeated how scared she was. Even when they got home from the short drive, Karlie was still paranoid.

As hours went by, Karlie's fears and distress didn't relent.

Her family says they remember Karlie huddling in a corner, acting afraid of her parents one minute, and then wanting their attention and comfort the next. She kept saying she didn't know what was wrong — but that she wanted to paint her toenails, color, and read the Bible.

As the rollercoaster of emotions continued around 10:00pm, Melissa took out her cellphone to secretly record Karlie. Her intention was to show Karlie the video the following morning as a way to demonstrate an important lesson about being under the influence.

No one would've imagined that these videos would end up being the last documented evidence of Karlie's mental state the night she would vanish.

In an audio recording that Melissa made, Karlie could be heard telling Melissa, "I really messed up today ... I’m so glad you came” and “I love you” but also asking “Are you going to call 911?” and “Am I going to live until tomorrow?”

She was also afraid that Melissa was going to kill her, but Melissa reassured her that her unbalanced thought was "preposterous."

Fox News listened to one of two recordings, which was 8 minutes and 45 seconds long. Karlie’s shaking voice conveyed deep angst, saying she didn’t want to sleep. The teary teen apologized and continued talking throughout her panic. To calm herself, she was writing on a piece of paper for hours — the family believes it was a therapy homework / exercise sheet she was working on.

Melissa sat with Karlie until after 3:00am when Karlie eventually went down. Melissa checked on Karlie and the boys a few times before falling asleep herself.

When Melissa awoke again around 7:15 to 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Karlie was gone.

Melissa was horrified to see that the front door was ajar, and that Karlie's cellphone was left at home on the island in the kitchen. Melissa woke up Zachary, and the two go out to drive and find her.

While in the car, Zachary calls Karlie's biological mother, Lindsay Fairley, to tell her abut the situation. After talking with Lindsay, Zachary calls the Momo County Sheriff's Department and reports Karlie as missing.

Thankfully, a few witnesses came forward.

Kenneth Dutton, who lived down the street and around the corner, said he saw Karlie walking through the neighborhood that Saturday morning. He knew Karlie, so he recognized Karlie easily. He also said she was holding a piece of paper.

Richard Eddy, another neighbor, said he saw a "thin female with long hair" walk by his house. He said she was "looking up around at the sky" with a piece of paper. "It was kind of unusual," he said.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the last witness was a “wooder” who lived in the area that reported seeing a girl fitting Karlie’s description in the vicinity of Highway 6.

Could the paper be the same sheet that Karlie was writing on earlier? Did she go out for fresh air and get disoriented, or did someone else play a role in her disappearance?

The two-lane route on Highway 6 runs toward Bishop — but also leads north into some of Nevada’s loneliest desert. In other words, there's a lot of ground to still cover in this investigation.

Although the tip line has received many phone calls, there have been no viable leads. Sheriff Ingrid Braun told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her office doesn’t have a theory about what happened to Karlie and remains “open to all possibilities.” Anyone who might’ve seen Karlie is asked to call the Mono County Sheriff’s Office at 760-932-7549, option 7.

Information

  1. Date Missing:October 13, 2018
  2. Birthday:May 13, 2002
  3. Current Age:22
  4. Age at Incident:16
  5. NAMUS Number:MP56874
  6. Race:White / Caucasian
  7. Gender:Female
  8. Height:5'7"
  9. Weight:110 lbs
  10. Hair Color:Brown

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