EPISODE 478: Charissa "Hazel Grace" Caster Part 1 - Chaos Puzzle

In late July 2024, 32-year-old Charissa Caster vanished under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a trail of unsettling clues. Her disappearance came to light when her belongings were found scattered along a roadway in Edmonds, Washington. Shortly after, her car was discovered abandoned near Sequim, WA, roughly 50 miles away. The last confirmed sighting of Charissa was captured on video, showing her picking flowers in the area, but after that, she seemingly disappeared without a trace.

As the reality of her disappearance set in, Charissa’s loved ones immediately launched a search around the location where her car was found, but they turned up empty-handed. In a desperate attempt to piece together what happened, they began retracing her steps in the days and weeks before her July 2024 disappearance. To share what little information they had, they created a group chat to exchange details from their personal interactions with Charissa. Slowly, a haunting picture of her life in the lead-up to her disappearance began to emerge.

But what do these fragmented pieces mean, and how might they help uncover what happened to Charissa?

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Charissa Caster, please contact the Edmonds Police Department at 425-771-0200.

EPISODE 477: Shannon Merry

It was Easter Sunday in 2013 when Shannon Merry's family last heard from her. During a phone call with her mother, who was in North Carolina while Shannon was in Ronkonkoma, New York, they had a disagreement, and the conversation ended on a sour note. After the call, Shannon's mother did not hear from her again and assumed that her daughter was upset. As time passed, Shannon's friends also noticed her absence; she stopped texting, calling, and posting on social media. Their concern grew as days turned into weeks, then months, and eventually years. Seven years later, they were finally able to have Shannon reported as a missing person.

However, the considerable time that had passed since anyone had heard from Shannon posed significant challenges for law enforcement in their investigation. The lack of immediate leads, fading of physical evidence, and difficulties in tracking down new information after such a long period hindered investigators' efforts to piece together what happened to Shannon Merry.

Today, Shannon's loved ones are appealing to the public for leads, hoping that someone will come forward with vital information. They believe that even the smallest clue could make a significant difference in their search and remain hopeful that the public’s assistance will bring them closer to finding Shannon.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Shannon Merry, please call the Suffolk County Police Department Fourth Squad at 631-854-8452 or 911.

EPISODE 476: Roberta Michels-Hopkins

In February of 1981, Roberta Michels-Hopkins, a 29-year-old mother of two, disappeared from Camden, New Jersey, without a trace. The story goes that she left her home, heading out to buy a pack of cigarettes, and never returned. Roberta's sister said she received a phone call from the man Roberta was in a relationship with, asking if she had seen or heard from Roberta. This phone call prompted her sister to try to report Roberta as missing. However, no official record of a missing persons report was filed until 41 years later. Roberta's sister was told that Roberta had the right to disappear if she wanted to. It was as if Roberta had vanished, slipping through the cracks of time, and her name became seemingly forgotten.

Roberta's son, who was an infant at the time of her disappearance, spent much of his childhood in foster care, lost in a world without answers. Years later, he had a daughter named Trinity, who would unknowingly step into a mystery much larger than she could have imagined. In 2019, just for fun, Trinity sent a DNA sample to one of those commercial databases, never expecting it to lead her to the unsettling truth that her grandmother had vanished and, shockingly, that no one had been searching for her.

What began as a simple curiosity soon became an obsession for Trinity. She dug deeper, uncovering a tangled web of unanswered questions and missing pieces. By 2022, she had ensured that Roberta's disappearance was finally acknowledged by law enforcement, officially reporting her grandmother as a missing person. But how did Roberta's story remain buried for so long? The mystery still lingers, and Trinity is determined to uncover the truth.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Roberta Michels-Hopkins, please contact Detective Geoffrey Chiumento of the Cinnaminson Township Police Department at 856-829-6667, ext. 2075, or the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit at 609-882-2000, ext. 2554.