Melissa Casias Vanishes in Broad Daylight in New Mexico | Forensic Files

Melissa Casillas disappeared from Ta County, New Mexico on June 26th, 2025. Nothing about that day was normal for
her. And I'm going to break down the three strangest facts of this case and the seven clues left behind that might
tell us what happened. And I need you to spread the word. Here's what we know based on police reports
that we obtained. On June 26, 2025, 53-year-old Melissa Casillas drove herself and her husband Mark to Los
Alamos National Laboratory where they both worked similar shifts. Video surveillance shows Melissa arriving at a
guard shack in their white Volkswagen at 6:13 a.m. Now, the normal routine is for
Melissa to drop Mark off at his building, go to hers, and then pick him up at the end of the day. But today was
different right from the start. Strange thing number one. At 6:20 a.m., instead of going to her scheduled shift,
Melissa's white Volkswagen is seen leaving the Los Alamos National Laboratory property. Strange thing
number two, Melissa sends an email to work saying something came up with her daughter and she was going to be a
little bit late. But this is bizarre because there is nothing in the records that I've seen that would suggest
anything did come up with her daughter Sierra. She's at home and she wakes up at around 7:30 a.m. for her own work
shift, surprised to find her mom at the house. And when she asks why her mom is home, we get strange thing number three.
Melissa says that she came home because she forgot her work badge. But this is also super weird because Mark later
tells police that he saw her hand it to the security guard at the guard shack. But at home, Melissa offers to make
Sierra breakfast. And her daughter's like, "Well, I mean, don't you have to get back to work?" And she basically
tells her like, "You know what? No, I'm already late." Plus, Melissa says she might just stay home the whole day
because she had errands to run. And then Sierra goes off to work and everything seems fine. At around 11:00 a.m., Mark
needs their shared car, but he can't reach his wife on the phone when he tries to call her. Now, it's unclear why
Melissa wasn't answering his calls at this time because we know she's available. We know this because around
lunchtime, Melissa goes to a Subway and buys a sandwich that she drops off to her daughter at her work just before
1:00 p.m. Video footage collected by police that we've obtained confirms that she was in this area. Now, her daughter
says that they talk and still everything seems fine. At some point that day, Mark
gets a call from Melissa's supervisor asking where she is. And Mark says this is when he first realized that she
wasn't at work. And he becomes concerned that maybe he doesn't have a ride home,
but he's not overly worried yet. He contacts their daughter, learns that Sierra had seen her mom that day, and so
he asked Sierra to see if she can get a response from Melissa about whether or not he should catch a ride home with a
friend. Mark tells police that Sierra said, "Yep, mom says find a ride home." By 2:34 p.m., any texts going to
Melissa's iPhone aren't being delivered in the normal way. They're delivered in a green bubble, not blue, which means
either the phone doesn't have an internet connection or its iMessage is disabled. Concerned, Sierra leaves work
and she gets home by 300 p.m. And this is when things really get weird. When their daughter gets to the house, she
sees her parents shared Volkswagen in the driveway and she finds odd clues left behind in the house. Clue number
one, the door to the house is locked, but all of Melissa's things are inside, including her keys. And according to a
police report, they're told no other keys are missing that could have been used. Along with her keys and her purse,
her work phone, her personal phone, even her old phone are all there at the house. Clue number two, her phones
weren't just left behind. Both of her personal cell phones had been factory reset. completely wiped. Now, once Mark
gets home and he sees everything Sierra found, he calls police to report his wife missing. And here is part of that
6-minute call. >> New Mexico State Police. >> Yeah, this is uh Mark Casillas. Uh you
know what? We're um we cannot locate my wife. Uh we haven't heard from her all day
>> and it's this is not like her. She doesn't do this much less leave with all her phones and contact people. And I
mean, she even left me walking. Uh, well, not walking. I had to pick a get a ride with one of my friends. I'm just
out of it right now. I'm just trying to figure this out. >> That's fine. I have an officer on the
way and they're going to go speak with you. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. Bye-bye.
>> When police begin taking statements, they learned that Melissa and Mark were struggling financially. She and her
husband kept separate accounts. And though Melissa made about half what Mark did, she was in charge of paying a lot
of the bills. One of her checking accounts was overdrawn by about $600 and they owed back taxes. Actually, that had
recently come to a head because these money troubles had more than just financial implications. According to
Melissa's former supervisor, who spoke to police, this caused Melissa and Mark to lose their security clearance at
work. Now, it didn't really affect Mark's role as a superintendent, but Melissa is an administrative assistant
in a secure building, and when she lost the clearance, she had to be moved to a different site.
Not the end of the world, but she was having performance issues on top of that. Now, Mark said their marriage was
good. Even the financial stuff was getting figured out. Melissa had just told a friend that she was paying the
IRS back. No biggie. Now, Mark gives permission for police to look around and take pictures. The house, while
cluttered, doesn't show any signs of a struggle. Though, there are two things that stand out in Mark and Melissa's
bedroom. Clue number three. In the primary bedroom, there are a pair of boots on the floor in front of a fish
tank. Now, Mark said he hadn't used those boots in forever. Even mentioned spiderw webs being on them. But the
officer didn't see any spiderw webs. What he saw on the boots was mud. The right boot had dried mud on the sole,
and the mud from the toe area down to the arch was wet. Clue number four. Near these boots, they found another
clue. Blood. Now, before you start jumping to conclusions, thinking something happened to Melissa in her
home and that she didn't even leave on her own or willingly, we spoke to the police and they said the swabs they took
of the blood are out for testing right now and they don't know yet if it's human or not. But the blood's not the
only reason for concern. Let me tell you about the next clue. The last sighting of Melissa. Clue number five. Once word
gets out that Melissa is missing, a family friend calls and says that he saw Melissa the day she disappeared while he
was out on his lunch break. According to this man's statement, he was driving east on the way to a pulloff spot where
he sometimes stops to eat his lunch. And that's when he passed a woman in jeans and a sweater walking in the same
direction on State Road 518. Now, she looked familiar this first time he sees her, but he didn't really think much of
it at the time. When he reaches the pulloff near Forest Road, he pulls out to eat his lunch and he calls his son.
This is at 2:19 p.m. And then after he's called his son, he sees this woman again. She passes by him walking
briskly, head down. And this is when he's pretty sure it's Melissa. She's skinnier than he knew her to be, but we
know from another person who police interviewed that she'd actually lost a lot of weight recently since she'd been
put on thyroid medication. Now, this spot is about a 47minute walk from their home per Google Maps. So, it wouldn't be
that odd for her to be there, especially because she was known to take long walks. And the timing lines up, right?
Like after dropping off the sandwich to her daughter, she could have gone home, then set out on that walk and made it to
that spot he sees her at by 219 or so, right after he calls his son. Now, to be sure, when this guy finishes his lunch,
he gets back on the road, drives further east. He sees the woman is still walking, and when he passes her, this
time he is sure of it. It was Melissa Casillas. And before you start questioning the family friend, police
later get surveillance footage from a house right by where he was eating lunch that day that shows Melissa walking east
at exactly 2:18 p.m. Now, by the time he realized that it was her, he couldn't just stop. He had to keep driving. But
he wanted to stop and talk to her, see if she needed anything. So, he found a place to turn around and drove to the
area that he expected her to be at if she had kept walking in the same direction. But when he got there, just
moments later, Melissa was gone. Which brings us to what might be our next clue. I'm going to call it clue
number six. The man tells police that where Melissa should have been, he saw a newer model, maybe like 2020, dark blue
Dodge Ram long bed pickup truck in good condition with tinted windows. The truck
was gaining speed like it had just been stopped prior and was driving east on State Road 518. So, was Melissa walking
away from her life? Did she walk out there to meet someone who picked her up? Or was she just going for a long walk
like she was known to do when she was met with foul play? Now, I think it's the latter because of the final clue.
When a couple who knows Melissa was out participating in searches for her, they found a pile of clothes on the side of
State Road 518 near the Amole Road intersection. This is a 15-minute drive from where the blue truck was spotted,
and the clothes are found in the same direction that it was heading. Now, at the time, the couple wasn't sure if the
jeans and sweater they had found were Melissa's. But the woman who found them said that there was a hair tie, like
cinching the jeans, and that was something that Melissa was known to do after she lost weight. Now, police told
us that the items found didn't match the description of what Melissa was last seen wearing. So, they told us they
haven't sent the clothes off for any sort of testing, though, they still should have them in evidence should
future testing be necessary. And that's it. There have been no sightings of Melissa Casillas after 2:18
p.m. on June 26th, 2025, but we are continuing to report on this. So, expect an in-depth story on this
case coming soon to Crime Junkie Podcast. And if you have any information you want to share with us for that
episode, email us tips@auchuk.com. With every day that passes by, her family grows more and more desperate for
answers. And they actually had a message for Melissa or anyone who has any information about her disappearance.
>> I go to bed thinking about her. Wake up in the middle of the night. Same thing.
Thinking about her. Where is he? What we would love is if someone out there knows something to be brave, if
they have any love in their heart to think what it would be like to go through something like this and if they
would just think about that of what we're going through and that they would please try to have the heart to come
forward and respond. anything that they would give a tip of some kind to let us know so that we can
so she can be found. That's all we need. We need to find her. We need to know where she's at.
>> She's my little sister. I I need to know where she's at. I can't stop looking for
her. I won't stop looking for her. She needs us to find her and bring her home. Please, if anybody knows a summon out
there, please come forward and uh we really really appreciate it. Police are also asking for help. Anyone who lives
in or may have been in Ta County, specifically in Talpa or Ranchos de Ta, or anyone traveling on or near New
Mexico State Road 518 on June 26, 2025, please check any surveillance cameras you have or dash cams. We're looking for
any sign of Melissa or anything that appears out of the ordinary. If you have footage to share or any tips, you can
call the New Mexico State Police Dispatch at 5054256771. Through Crimestoppers and her family,
there is $7,500 in reward money available for information on Melissa Casillas's whereabouts.
[Music]

On June 26, 2025, 53-year-old Melissa Casias vanished in Taos County, New Mexico, under circumstances that seemed strange from the start. That morning, she left work after passing security at Los Alamos National Laboratory, emailed her boss an odd excuse about her daughter, then returned home claiming she forgot her badge- even though her husband says he saw her use it. She spent the morning running errands, dropped off lunch to her daughter, and was later seen walking briskly along State Road 518- before suddenly disappearing just minutes later. When her daughter came home, she found Melissa’s purse, keys, and multiple cell phones inside the house- but all of the phones had been factory reset.

Police uncovered even more troubling clues: muddy boots, blood in the bedroom, and a pile of abandoned clothes on the roadside. Despite extensive searches, Melissa has never been found, and her family is pleading for tips to solve the mystery of what happened that day. If you have any information on the disappearance of Melissa Casias, you can call New Mexico State Police Dispatch at 505-425-6771.

Key Episode Moments 0:00 - 0:22 — Case Intro 0:23 - 1:15 — Melissa Leaves Work Unexpectedly 1:16 - 2:06 — Strange Email & Badge Excuse 2:07 - 2:58 — Lunch Drop-Off To Her Daughter 2:59 - 3:18 — Texts Turn Green, Phone Goes Offline 3:19 - 4:55 — Purse, Keys & Reset Phones Found 4:56 - 6:58 — Muddy Boots & Blood In The Bedroom 6:59 - 8:52 — Last Confirmed Sighting On State Road 518 8:53 - 9:56 — Dark Blue Dodge Ram Spotted 9:57 - 10:46 — Abandoned Clothes Found Roadside 10:47 - 13:22 — Outro --------

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Brief Summary

Melissa Casillas vanished on June 26, 2025, under strange circumstances, leaving behind clues and unanswered questions about her fate.

Key points

The Disappearance of Melissa Casillas. Melissa Casillas vanished on June 26, 2025, under mysterious circumstances. Her family is desperate for answers.

Episode highlights

The Disappearance of Melissa CasillasMelissa Casillas vanished on June 26, 2025, under mysterious circumstances. Her family is desperate for answers.“We need to find her. We need to know where she's at.”12:10Sep 24, 2025

Episode quotes

Where is she?

A family member expressing their desperation for answers about Melissa's disappearance.

11:29WatchSep 24, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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