r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/DoctorElectronic1934 • 1d ago
Update Remains of Melissa Casias, missing Taos woman, found in Carson National Forest nearly a year later. cause of death still undetermined
reported missing on June 26, 2025, after she failed to show up to work and never came home following a visit to see her daughter at her job. Family members later discovered she had left behind her purse, ID, and both of her cell phones , which immediately raised red flags and triggered the missing persons case.
Nearly a year later, on May 28, 2026, a hiker found human remains and a handgun in the McGaffey Ridge area of Carson National Forest. New Mexico State Police, through coordination with the Office of the Medical Investigator, positively identified the remains as Casias.
The cause and manner of death have NOT been determined. The remains are currently undergoing further anthropological examination.
Link:
KOB News Article: https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/remains-of-missing-taos-woman-melissa-casias-found-in-carson-national-forest/
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u/SubtleSparkle19 1d ago
Thanks for the update, I’m happy her family will have a level of closure now.
Here’s the link to a write-up with a lot of details about her personal life leading up to her disappearance:
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u/MariettaDaws 1d ago
How odd that her family of origin was holding searches without her daughter and husband
Even odder that one of them saw her that day
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u/Princessleiawastaken 15m ago
Her husband and daughter were estranged from her family. Her family are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Her husband and daughter reported there was little contact between Melissa and her family after she left the religion. But Melissa’s family has said that’s not true.
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u/OppositeExtension807 1d ago
I hope her daughter and partner are doing ok, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this last year has been for them. RIP Melissa
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23h ago
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u/OppositeExtension807 23h ago
Where’s your source for this information? You can’t just place blame randomly that’s not right
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u/WhyDoesOklahomaExist 1d ago
A killer wouldn't leave the gun with the body. This seems like suicide.
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u/sghannah 1d ago
Only the genius Earl Bramblet would ever think of doing that! Oops - he wasn't thinking too well when he did that either.
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u/Cool_Highlight2841 1d ago
that's a fair point, though I wonder if the gun was hers to begin with. she left her ID and phone behind which is also really unusual... hard to know what to make of it
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u/neds_newt 1d ago
IIRC she also left her prescription medication behind.
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u/Cool_Highlight2841 1d ago
I didn’t realize she also left her prescription meds behind. that really does fit with someone who wasn’t planning to come back… do you remember where that detail was mentioned? I’d like to read more about it.
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u/neds_newt 1d ago
It was mentioned in a podcast I listened to about the case. Serialously by Annie Elise episode 401. She talks about a few cases in that episode and this one is towards the end.
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u/Comprehensive-Room32 4h ago
I was just listening to a podcast where they interviewed the family. She had brought 90 days worth of her thyroid medication with her. Along with a toothbrush and some glasses.
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u/FoozBallHero69 1h ago
I recall hearing she took her medicine with her. That was one of the few things she didn't leave behind. But she needed it to survive so it was kind of an important factor - if she had run away she would have to figure out how to renew it without being tracked.
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u/Big1-Country1 1d ago
Pretty safe to say it’s suicide
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1d ago
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u/Formergr 1d ago
It's actually super common in suicides away from the house to leave their wallet or purse and phone at home.
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u/AlexandrianVagabond 1d ago
Really common in suicides (including that of my BIL) so no, not hard to explain at all.
Are you one of those people who have been trying to make this into a big conspiracy? I keep seeing posts about that and it's honestly pretty silly.
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u/Cool_Highlight2841 1d ago
not at all, I’m really not trying to turn this into some big conspiracy. I’m sorry about your brother-in-law, that must have been incredibly hard. I just keep wondering about the little details in cases like this because they can change how we understand what happened.
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u/alone-in-the-town 1d ago
If someone is going to kill themselves they are not thinking about their ID
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u/Sad-Pie-471 1d ago
No it’s been confirmed she could not legally able to buy her own firearm. Assuming it’s marks registered handgun she was found with.
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u/Cool_Highlight2841 1d ago
oh interesting, so the gun wasn't legally hers. that actually rules out a lot of premeditation on her part if true. do you have a source for that? would love to read more about it
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u/GigglyHyena 8h ago
People don’t secure their firearms all the time. There didn’t need to be a lot of planning. Just grab it and go.
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u/Old-Fox-3027 1d ago
Did they find her car? How far away from it was she found? How did she get there?
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u/neds_newt 1d ago
Her car was left at home when she disappeared. Security footage showed her walking alone.
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u/sk8505 1d ago
I think this is a 2-3 hour walk from her house. Seems odd she would walk so far to me. She was allegedly seen walking towards that area.
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u/SaltySoftware1095 1d ago
She was an avid hiker and hunter, walking a couple of hours wouldn’t have been a big thing for her.
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u/sk8505 1d ago
Well that’s a lot of time to think about your decision I suppose
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u/BriarKnave 8h ago
Usually that's the opposite of what you want. That's why chucking yourself on subway tracks is so common; 0 time to think about anything before oblivion. When the checmical situation gets that bad the primordial rat brain takes over and you just kinda...take the step. Everyone regrets jumpining off the Brooklyn bridge y'know
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1d ago
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u/pillsanpotions 1d ago
They have surveillance footage of her walking that way, alone
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u/sk8505 1d ago
It is allegedly her in the video. It hasn’t been forensically determined.
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u/pillsanpotions 1d ago
A family friend also saw her walking alone. I think it’s pretty safe to say she walked away from home alone.
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u/sk8505 1d ago
People also said Mark was at work while other people said they saw him eating at a popular restaurant in Taos. Just because someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true.
Some man in Taos told tourists he found her body with the head cut off.10
u/pillsanpotions 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ok but there is evidence to back this up- a witness who knew her personally, timing, and the timing/location of the surveillance footage. Her car was left at home, and she was seen carrying a backpack of belongings, which probably included items that were missing from the home- toothbrush, etc.
Mark was left at work without a vehicle.
It makes sense to me, what do you suspect happened?
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u/Cool_Highlight2841 1d ago
does anyone know if the anthropological examination they're doing now can still determine manner of death after almost a year outdoors? genuinely curious how much information is left at that point
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u/throwaway182883831 1d ago
Grim, but: since it was likely a suicide via gun, they should be able to see evidence of the exit wound on the skull (or wherever she shot herself) :(
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u/Cool_Highlight2841 1d ago
that's true, though I read that the remains were pretty scattered across the area so I wonder if the skull was even intact enough for that kind of analysis. hopefully the anthropologist can still pull something from it
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u/jpbay 1d ago
I’ll be curious what the “scientists are going missing” conspiracy theorists have to say about this one when it’s ruled a suicide.
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u/riskapanda 1d ago
The only thing she has in common with the scientists is working at a high security lab. She was only an admin assistant, there would be no reason for Melissa to be on anyone's radar and as odd as the other disappearances are, this is either her taking matters into her own hands or someone close to her.
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u/FoozBallHero69 1h ago
I don't necessarily believe in that theory, but they will say even though she wasn't a person who should know classified info, maybe she accidentally stumbled upon some info or developed a relationship with someone who had info or something along those lines.
I tend to go with Occam's Razor, but who knows.
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u/Maleficent-Hawk-318 1d ago
That whole theory is so funny to me as someone in northern NM. Like 2/3 of the people I know have worked for the labs/defense industry; they seem to be going missing at the same rates they always did to me...
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u/Successful-Time8895 1d ago
Yup from northern NM also. Everyone and their mama has worked for that Lab.
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u/AlexandrianVagabond 1d ago
There 's one right here in this thread, although they're trying to be subtle about it.
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1d ago
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u/AlexandrianVagabond 1d ago
There are some people who think she was killed for knowing too much about some secret plot going on at the lab she worked at.
Some people watch too much TV.
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u/Varlathen 1d ago edited 1d ago
Famously, people have never been murdered and then have their death framed as a suicide.
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u/AlexandrianVagabond 1d ago
Do you think there are statistically more suicides or more homicides framed as suicides?
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u/BriarKnave 7h ago
Well it's specifically people who talk about climate change/are witnesses against oil companies in large lawsuits. It's less a conspiracy theory and more very obvious crimes by rich people. If a well known climate scientist sues the Shell corporation, and then shows up dead in a ditch, that's obviously weird. If the case is then closed in less than a month without halting court preceedings in any way that's suspicious.
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u/Several-Cry-4267 1d ago
The gun doesn’t settle it by itself, but it makes the lab-conspiracy angle look even thinner.
NMSP’s public update is careful for a reason.
A hiker found remains and a handgun in McGaffey Ridge, OMI identified her, and cause and manner are still pending anthropological examination.
The phone wipes, backpack, solo footage on 518 and the car left at home still fit a planned departure or self-harm more comfortably than a stranger abduction, though the gun’s ownership and exact placement would matter a lot before calling anything settled.
Also, the “women almost never use guns” point doesn’t really hold anymore. NCHS found firearms have been the leading means of suicide among women since 2020.
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u/Beese25 23h ago
Agreed that it seems to be on the rise. And anecdotally, a female friend committed suicide by gun back in 2019. Of course she did this away from home & outside. And also spent considerable time beforehand packing up her belongings and setting aside items w/notes for various folks. Heartbreaking that she was trying to make it “easier” for her loved ones.
Jumping around, but if this is determined to be a suicide, I wonder how much (if any) being potentially peri-menopausal had to do with her state of mind.
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u/InnocentaMN 10h ago
I wonder if greater access to information via the internet, and in particular the prevalence of things like true crime media, has led to shifts in women’s behaviour when there is a definite suicidal intent and firearms are available. In my country we don’t really have access to guns, but I can see (as a woman myself) why a woman would use one in a country like the US where they are reasonably easy to obtain. In the past I believe people were more naive about the efficacy of things like overdoses.
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u/QueenAndrea99 1d ago
I wonder what she was like when she visited her daughter. Extra loving like she was saying goodbye...
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u/ParvatiandTati 1d ago
Crime junkie podcast recently had an episode on this case. It answered some of the questions people posted here (like what the visit to her daughter was like). You need to mentally eliminate the extra ( missing scientists).
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u/Comprehensive-Room32 4h ago
I just listened to this after I read online they found her body. I also just read they found it somewhere previously searched on multiple online sources. I wonder what happened to her.
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u/GigglyHyena 1h ago
That happens a lot. Remains blend right in with the background really fast. It was hot and right at the beginning of the monsoon when she went missing. Any decomp would be very fast and easy to miss.
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u/throwaway182883831 1d ago
It sounds like she was massively stressed for a slew of reasons. Poor woman, RIP. I’m glad her family can have closure now though :(