KDVR assists in search for missing woman

CRESTONE — Fox News KDVR from Denver came to Crestone last week to search for the body of missing Crestone woman Kristal Reisinger, seeking out clues in a maze of caves near the tiny mountain town where she was last seen alive. Reisinger, 29, disappeared July 13, 2016.

A disturbing shadow no one could account for appeared mysteriously over the very last cave the news team searched. Its wide, outstretched wings and hollow-eyed head seemed to be sending a chilling message to searchers and onlookers. (To view the KDVR video and see the image, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IOdB6cLWb0 )

Reisinger’s friend, Amy Ervin, described the image as “powerful.” She told reporters her friend Kristal was clairvoyant and an adept Tarot card reader, and she felt she would assist them in finding her remains.

Ervin believes her friend will be found in a cold place near a river, as Reisinger’s medium and Kristal’s 5-year-old daughter, Akasha, predict. According to Ervin, “Kasha” has inherited her mother’s psychic sensitivities.

Talk around the community has led some to believe Reisinger’s body was hidden in a mine by an acquaintance. This is the belief held by her friends and family. While they realize nothing more than bones remain of their loved one, they would like to bring her home.

The KDVR news crew used a database from the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety to search out abandoned mines, checking to see if they had been secured as they are required to be by law or whether they were accessible to the public. Some they found unsecured; others could not be entered legally.

The crew checked over 40 locations out of 62 provided by the database, but decided the others were too remote and not likely to have been accessible to someone trying to hide a body. The news team also took a cadaver dog named Chance to search the last spot Reisinger was seen alive — the “drum circle” outside Crestone. The dog appeared to pick up no scent.

The Denver investigative team used GoPro cameras and other equipment to probe deep into the caves and physically searched inside them where possible, but no clues were found. The case has frustrated friends and family members who feel leads to the location of Kristal’s body have not been fully investigated.

Atlanta filmmaker Payne Lindsey of Tenderfoot TV recently ran a podcast series on Reisinger’s disappearance, interviewing Saguache Sheriff Dan Warwick during one of the podcasts. Some 17 million listeners have downloaded the podcast, KDVR reported in its broadcast Monday.

Warwick said in late September his office has now officially handed the case over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “We haven’t been able to work it like we want and if they need anything we will be more than willing [to provide it],” Warwick explained. “We don’t have the manpower to work this one case non-stop.”

Previously CBI was only assisting in the investigation. KDVR said they will turn over all the documentation gathered in their search to the bureau.

Background

Kristal Reisinger had just gone shopping before she disappeared July 13, 2016. Her favorite health foods still sat in her refrigerator when family members went to her recently rented apartment. Medications she regularly took were lying nearby.

“Something’s just not right,” her father Rodney Irvin said in a telephone interview from the Denver area at the time of her disappearance. Kristal’s friends say they heard from her on July 15 and 18, but the reports cannot be confirmed. 

“She was hanging around with some people she shouldn’t have been,” Irvin acknowledged at the time, but he said he does not believe she was taking illegal or non-prescribed prescription drugs as some have indicated.

The Saguache Sheriff’s Office conducted an extensive ground and air search for Reisinger Aug. 23, 2016 in the Crestone area but found no signs of the woman. Family members put up posters in Crestone offering a reward for any information regarding her disappearance.

“Not knowing is worse than knowing,” Kristal’s father said towards the end of the 2016 interview. “You always think, ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda, but we have done about everything we could do.” Irvin said the family just needs closure, “one way or the other.”

Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Kristal Reisnger is asked to contact Sheriff Dan Warwick at 719-655-2544. A $20,000 reward is being offered for information in the case.