Melissa Casias
No forced entry and two wiped phones.
Selfie of Melissa Casias with shades on.
SUBJECT: Disappearance of Melissa Casias
Occupation: Adminstrative Assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
Last Seen: Hwy 518, Rancho De Taos, New Mexico on June 26th, 2025
DATA CONFIDENCE: High (Multiple sources corroborating the same story with few outliers)
On June 26th, 2025 at 6:18am, Melissa Casias dropped her husband, Mark, off at work. Both of them were employed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is a Construction Supervisor. Shortly after dropping Mark off, she said that she had forgotten her ID and would work from home that day. Her husband stated later that he thinks it was a lie. Mark says that you have to use your ID to get into the parking lot. Either way, he mentioned to Melissa that he needed the car at 11am to which she acknowledged.
Mark and Melissa's daughter, Sierra, woke around 7:30am to get ready for work when she heard her mother arrive home 15 minutes later. She then inquired as to why her mom was home instead of work to which Melissa again said that she had forgotten her ID. Sierra accepted this answer and has said that she didn't see anything out of the ordinary in that moment.
11:00am rolls around and Mark is patiently waiting for his wife to arrive with the car. However, she never did. He assumed that she was just busy with work until her boss gave him a call asking if she was okay. Confused, he replied that she was fine and was at work to which he said otherwise. Mark messaged his daughter at 1:30pm asking if she had talked with her mother that day. She said yes and he asked that she relay a message to her if she was going to pick him up at the end of the day or if he needed to find a ride home. Sierra sent a screenshot of the message to her mother to which she did see but never replied to.
Around 12:30pm, Melissa went to Subway to pick up lunch for her daughter. They met at a cafe in the Taos Plaza where Sierra worked. From 12:50 to 12:57 they talked briefly. Sierra said that the only thing out of the ordinary was that her mom seemed a little bit more quiet than normal but she chalked it up to her dealing with errands.
At a timestamp of 06/26/2026 12:57:27 THU, a security camera from John Dunn Shops captures Melissa leaving Taos, New Mexico. She is wearing shades, with a blue shirt, what appears to be either a maroon hoodie or jacket, jeans, and white shoes. In her right hand you can see that she is carrying what appears to be some folded paper.
Mark was trying to call his daughter around 2pm but due to work, she couldn't answer. Once she had a moment to check her phone at 2:30pm, her father had left a frantic voicemail saying that Melissa still hadn't called him. She tried messaging her mother but it was never delivered.
Sierra left work at 3:30pm and returned home assuming that her mother would be their since she saw that her workphone and keys. However, after looking into her mother's office, she saw her purse, wallet, and personal phone but no Melissa. Her car was parked outside the house as well.
Mark finally arrived home at 5pm after getting a ride from a coworker. It was around this time that he filed a missing person report with the New Mexico State Police.
A friend of the family was driving and said that he saw her stumbling down Hwy 518 from Talpa, New Mexico which is towards Pot Creek, 3 miles from their family home. One article says stumbling while the rest say walking. Melissa was recorded by a security camera shortly beforehand wearing a backpack along with the same outfit she wore when she had dropped off lunch for her daughter.
The family had planned on taking a weekend trip to the lake on June 27th, the day after she went missing.
A private investigator, hired by the family, has located what he believes to be Melissa's white shoes in Carson National Forest, which is 1h 43m away from Taos. 1h 51m from Talpa. They have been sent off for a DNA analyst to confirm that they are in fact her shoes. This is the best evidence of anything that anybody has so far.
Security Camera from John Dunn Shops
Mark and Sierra, via Facebook