TX TX - Monica Carrasco, 16, Balmorhea, 1 Oct 2003

[Kelly]

Monica Carrasco
DOB: Dec 13, 1986
Missing: Oct 1, 2003
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: White/Hisp
Age Now: 17
Sex: Female
Weight: 111 lbs (50 kg)
Hair: Brown
Missing From:
BALMORHEA
TX
United States

Monica was last seen at home on October 1, 2003. She has a small mole on her left cheek, a chicken pox scar on her forehead near her hairline, and pierced ears. When Monica was last seen, she had red streaks in her hair. She may be in need of medical attention.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reeves County Sheriff's Office (Texas) 1-432-445-4901

Unconfirmed sighting:

On 6-30-04, a couple--(truckers) claimed they saw a girl fitting Monica's description at a rest area 7 west of Indianapolis,Indiana, on Hwy 70. The truck driver said they saw her leaving with an older male in an 18 wheeler.

You can see a photo of Monica here:

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/...ski/monica.jpg

Monica left home without her purse and other possessions that she always took with her.

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
http://www.projectjason.org

[Kelly]

http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw080304e.htm

Psychic aids in search for teen
Monica Carrasco has been missing from her home in Balmorhea for almost a year.
By Ruth Friedberg Campbell
Odessa American

Prompted by a Little Rock, Ark., psychic, the Reeves County Sheriff’s Department is looking into a possible scenario in the disappearance of Balmorhea teenager Monica Carrasco.
Carrasco has been missing from her Balmorhea home since Oct. 2, 2003, Reeves County Senior Deputy Reno Lewis said. Psychic Carol Pate was contacted by Carrasco’s grandmother, Gloria Tarango, about the case, Lewis said.
Pate spent three days last week in Balmorhea meeting with Carrasco family members and going around the Balmorhea area looking for clues to the youngster’s whereabouts, Lewis said. Pate used a photograph of Carrasco and a pair of Levi’s and a sweatshirt Carrasco was wearing the day before she disappeared, he said.
Pate was taken to places Carrasco was staying, met with her mother, Kathy, her grandmother and her grandmother’s brother.
Carrasco had been staying with Velma and Abel Baeza at their home four miles southwest of Balmorhea after being hospitalized for depression and anorexia.
Carrasco was wearing only pajamas and carrying a Bible when she was last seen.
“The case is very peculiar,” Pate said. “It’s just very different. Every murder case is unique unto itself.”
Lewis said the case is being investigated “from both sides.” He said this type of case is always investigated as criminal.
Lewis said Pate did provide some information he’s going to look into such as a basic psychological profiles of the people involved and a possible scenario of what took place. “That’s what I’m going to look into and see where it leads me,” he said.
Pate, who has the Carol Pate Psychic Center in Little Rock, said Carrasco’s family had contacted her twice and she worked the case from Arkansas.
Then Reeves County Sheriff Arnulfo “Andy” Gomez contacted her after an appearance on “Larry King Live” and asked if she would be willing to come to Reeves County.
When she works cases long distance, Pate said she uses a photograph and tunes in to what she called “a person’s energy signature.”
“When I tap into them … I can see what they see, feel what they feel,” Pate said.
Pate said she doesn’t always go to places where someone has disappeared, but in this case, “I felt led to do that.”
She said she felt coming to Reeves County was important and added that the trip was “fairly successful” considering the length of time Carrasco has been gone.
Carrasco is 5-foot-5 inches tall, 110 pounds, has dark brown eyes and dark brown shoulder-length hair with red highlights. She has a small mole on her cheek and a chicken pox scar on her forehead near the hairline, Lewis said.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information on the case.
Pate said she hopes her visit will help resolve Carrasco’s disappearance. “It’ll certainly stir things. Sometimes that in itself is a good thing,” she said.

[WasBlind]

For Monica

[Kelly]

Project Jason announces that Monica Carrasco is the current 18 Wheel Angel campaign. Her campaign will continue through August.

18 Wheel Angels is a national missing person's locator program in which truck drivers or other business travelers are recruited to place posters of a specific missing person along the way as they travel.

For additional information, please see:

http://www.projectjason.org/18wheel.html

You do not need to be a truck driver to help please posters. YOu can also help by telling any truck drivers or trucking companies you know about this program.

Thank you.

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org

[Kelly]

Monica has been added to Project Jason's Adopt a Missing Person program. Please consider helping reunite Monica with her family by wearing her photo button and sharing her story with others. For more details on how you can make a difference, please see:

http://www.projectjason.org/adopt.html

Thank you!

Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
www.projectjason.org

[WasBlind]

Prayers for Monica, that she is found safe and soon.

With love and HOPE, Lanie

[Kelly]

http://www.dmtimes.net/blog/Editoria...23/212734.html

Editorial: Help Katherine Carrasco this Christmas
Publish Date: December 23, 2004

Monica Carrasco

Katherine Carrasco of Alpine remembers the last conversation she had with her daughter, Monica, who has been missing since Oct. 2, 2003. At Monica’s aunt’s house in Balmorhea, Monica joined hands with her mother and her aunt, and they formed a circle. “I told her I loved her,” Katherine recalls, “and she said she loved me. Then we prayed.”

The next day, Monica disappeared. Her room was undisturbed, except for a missing Bible. No sign of missing clothes, shoes or bags. No sign of a forced entry. Monica remains missing today, after four organized searches in Alpine, Balmorhea and Pecos.

Monica was struggling against anorexia at the time, but her mother says she was not the type of girl who would run away or who would hurt herself. From January to October, she had lost 50 pounds. Her mother had to convince Monica to go to an Odessa hospital for treatment. After a week, Monica was released, and, angry at her mother, she chose to stay with her aunt and uncle.

Katherine believed their family difficulty would be resolved with some more time. When told that Monica had disappeared, she said she simply couldn’t believe it. “I thought that she must be jogging somewhere,” Katherine said this week. The first Christmas without her daughter, Katherine was in despair and numb with grief. This will be the second Christmas without knowing her daughter’s fate. “Every morning when I wake up, I think she’s going to be there. I still have the feeling in my heart she’s somewhere, and she’s okay. But, lately it’s been harder. Her birthday was Dec. 13. I’ve been in far more despair because she hasn’t called me.”

Katherine asks everyone in the community to download a poster of Monica that can be found on the Polly Klaas Web site: www.pollyklaas.org/missing/kids/carrasco.htm Post it somewhere in your hometown, or post it somewhere when you make a trip.

Anyone who has information about what might have happened to Monica or her whereabouts, please call 432.445.4901. You may remain anonymous.

[fourboys]

Posted April 28 2005
http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1521977.html

The October 2003 disappearance of Monica Cassandra Carrasco, 16, from her uncle’s home in Balmorhea in Reeves County is the focus of the Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse this month.

Foul play is suspected in the disappearance, the DPS said.

At the time of her disappearance, Carrasco was wearing a long beige nightgown and may have been carrying a black Bible.

She is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 110 pounds and had red streaks in her hair.

She suffers from depression and an eating disorder and may be in need of medical attention, the DPS said.

"Even a small amount of information could help solve the disappearance of Monica Carrasco," said DPS Director Col. Thomas Davis Jr.

"I encourage anyone with information about her disappearance to contact us."

Anyone with information about the teenager’s disappearance should call the Missing Persons Clearinghouse at 1-800-346-3243.

A reward of as much as $1,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and indictment of anyone criminally involved in the disappearance, the DPS said.

Click Here For The DPS Missing Persons Clearinghouse Web Site

[jodierenee]

bumping for monica. There is a good chance she is still out there somewhere alive.

[reb]

Just read up on Monica's case.... wow, this one is an absolute dead end.. doesn't seem like there are many clues to begin with.. and no updates or new info anywhere in 4 years.

It's just mind-boggling to me.. how high the odds are, that a person (especially female) will get snatched up by a bad individual (assuming this is what happened)... if you just let your guard down for a second,, due to mental/emotional stress or illness, wander away from home or become lost. In other words.. you just have one second of vulnerability- and you're just prey for the wolves.

They said she may have met someone on the 'net... didn't authorities do a search of her computer to see if she did?? Was her case ever thoroughly investigated?? Even if she DID leave her aunt's house to meet someone.... come on,, in her nightgown and barefoot.....??? It sounds like she was not in her right mind. If you were leaving the house to meet someone, you would most likely get dressed first, right...?
I wonder what kind of road leads to her aunt's house and what kind of traffic goes down that way....?

[reb]

just wanted to bump up her thread. after the recent case of the austrian sicko it makes me wonder how many other women (and boys/ young men) have ended up a slaves in a cellar somewhere. but whatever it was that happened.... her case is so strange.. the way she seemed to have some sort of breakdown and just wandered off into the night in her nightgown and vanished.

and KUDOS to whoever is keeping her site up. so many missing people have loved ones who just get tired of maintaining a site after so long, and it's gone. but hers is still there... and i'm assuming her mother is still looking. but what can you do when there are NO clues.....??

http://www.missingmonica.com/index.htm

[meggilyweggily]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...co_monica.html

What a beautiful young woman. She looks like she could be a model, seriously. I hope she's all right.

[Kimster]

New article about Monica:

"And with no signs of forced entry, their only thought is she walked away in the middle of the night.

"The only thing she took with her was her bible and she was wearing a nightgown. She didn't take shoes and everything was still intact in the house," said her uncle Rosendo Carrasco."

<snipped>

http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=24466

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Monica Carrasco: Nancy Grace America's Missing



http://nancygrace.blogs.cnn.com/

And a short video clip of Monica on the show: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2...ssing.3.24.hln

[Miziree]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...co_monica.html

From the link above..

"A bus driver allegedly harassed Carrasco in May 2003, five months before her disappearance. She did not report the incident to any official authority, but was so shaken by it that she refused to take the bus to school after that. The bus driver was interviewed and has been ruled out as a suspect in her disappearance, but Cassasco's uncle failed a lie detector test in relation to her case. "

[amber1]

why did she go walking at that hour of the night with a bible barefoot down the road?!

[annemc2]

Originally Posted by amber1

why did she go walking at that hour of the night with a bible barefoot down the road?!

Sounds like she had some mental health issues in the past. Maybe she was having an exacerbation of her illness?

[amber1]

Originally Posted by annemc2

Sounds like she had some mental health issues in the past. Maybe she was having an exacerbation of her illness?

I must agree. I believe it stated she had depression? Did she have anything else?
If she was meeting someone off the net or anyone at all, wouldn't she have taken more than a bible, and why would she just wander down the road?? It almost sounds like she was in a trance?
If she ranaway, wouldn't she have put shoes on and had more items with?
I have considered so many theories, this case is so bizarre with not many clues. I know she was being harassed by the bus driver but i doubt he was responsible, but may be his actions affected her emotionally.
1. Was she maybe sleep walking or dreaming? I know that's far fetchd, but there's not much to go on here.
2. Was she mentally distraught, and maybe wanted to commit suicide?
3. Was she involved in a religious cult?
4. Did she simply feel sad and want to go for a walk, only to get picked up?
5. What if the witnesses were wrong? What if she never left the house at all?? Is there proof that she left?

Asha Degree's disappearance reminds me of Monica's. She vanished in the wee hours of the night and was also last seen walking down the high way at night. Except they recovered her book bag she took with thrown in the ditch. With Monica, there's nothing. She's one of those that vanished into thin air, with no clues or anything left behind. Here is Asha's story:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/degree_asha.html

[amber1]

http://www.missingmonica.com/index.htm
Here is Monica's missing child site, ran by her mother. You can find news articles on here, as well as photos of Monica when she was a baby:
http://www.missingmonica.com/photos.htm
Monica as a baby. So beautiful:

I hope she is found.

[Derek]

Balmorhea, Texas is right near Interstate 10. I mapquested routes from Balmorhea to the two nearest major US-Mexico border localities.

Fort Hancock, Texas -- 1 hour 48 min
Presidio, Texas -- 2 hours 11 min

Perhaps this may be at least somewhat important, perhaps not. I hope that whenever someone goes missing from a locality that's near the US-Mexico border and aren't found quickly, an assumption is that they may have been taken into Mexico.

[amber1]

That is very true-she's such a beautiful girl, could she have been taken for human trafficking?

[amber1]

Thinking of Monica and her family during this holiday season, which I'm sure does not get any easier than the last. I would love to see her featured as a case spotlight on here.

[marycarney]

I want to know more about the uncle............

[summer_breeze]

http://permianbasin360.com/fulltext?nxd_id=251952

By: Karl Rundgren
Updated: February 20, 2013


<snipped>

Reeves County Sheriff Art Granado recently re-opened the investigation into Carrasco's disappearance.

[amber1]

So glad it is reopened, I'll be honest, I never knew it was closed. Someone knows something. Her disappearance is so baffling, I don't even know where to start!
Thoughts?