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What did I tell you crime junkies? More answers in the Melissa Casias case inevitably leads to more questions.
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But things are getting interesting. So, I wanted to bring you some stuff hot off
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the press. I got a couple of things to hit on and I'm going to save the strangest for
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last. So, stick with me. So, update number one, public pressure and the PI. There has been a ton of intensity
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heating up around this case. A lot has to do with the press attention resulting from Melissa being connected to these
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missing or dead scientists. Which, by the way, not sure if you clocked this, but at the time we recorded our episode,
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there was a list of 11 if you included Melissa. Well, Fox News published an article April 21st about a family who
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died in a plane crash just recently. On board was a quote decorated veteran pilot, aerospace engineer, and defense
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researcher James Tony Moffett. And also his son who was up and coming in the field, Andrew Moffett. Their plane
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crashed in South Carolina, but they were from Huntsville, Alabama. The same city that chemist and
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entrepreneur Amy Esrig called home. Now, Amy's 2022 death was ruled a suicide, but she has been grouped in with that
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list of scientists. And before her death, she said in an interview that Huntsville was the biggest deal you've
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never heard of. It's home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center where Amy's father, Richard Esrig, spent his career
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as an engineer. He and Amy co-founded a research institute together before she died. Now, it's worth saying though that
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he told NewsNation he does not believe that her death was suspicious. Though, an interview Amy gave a couple of years
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before her death and texts that she supposedly sent in the weeks before she died make it clear that she felt
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targeted and that her life was in danger. So, that is all blowing up bringing more attention to Melissa's
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case. So much so that Agent Mata told us that the FBI had reached out to him given the media attention and he's
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working something out with them for assistance. But at the same time, there are other driving forces stirring things
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up. Namely, the Mondragon family has a PI working on their behalf who they met through a missing person support event.
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This man, Thomas McNally, is licensed to practice in Arizona, but according to New Mexico's Regulation and Licensing
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Department, he's not licensed in the state of New Mexico where Melissa went missing. And McNally's tactics have been
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aggressive. He has been making a series of strongly worded public Facebook posts
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calling for Mark to be investigated as a person of interest and naming other members of the Casillas family. And
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that's kind of putting it lightly. Now, because of the backlash, the Casillas family says that they have become
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worried for their own safety and not just Mark, but his daughters as well. Now, we talked to Agent Mata about this
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and he was aware of the PI, but he had not heard anything about McNally's tactics being aggressive. Now, on to
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update number two. Rick Valerio. Now, remember, this is the guy who was sitting on his horse crying
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in front of a church, the one who told the tourist that he had just found his cousin decapitated in the mountains.
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Now, Mata confirmed more about that second interview he did with him after the body cam one that you saw in our
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episode. But there wasn't much more. He said that in that follow-up, Valerio admitted that he is intoxicated every
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time he's on a horse, but not much else came from the interview. Other than Mata
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says he has not been able to establish any connection between Rick Valerio and Melissa. And as for it, the the truck
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that he had, in our episode we were interested to know if anyone had searched it, knowing
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that there was a sighting of a blue truck near Melissa when she was last seen walking down Highway 518.
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And the answer is, kind of. So, Mata told us he did look at it, but only visually. Like, he walked around
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it. And he noted old-looking rusty damage on it. Valerio said that the truck had been out of commission for
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several months and had not been driven, but I don't know if Mata managed to confirm that.
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He did confirm for us, though, that there were no license plate readers on the relevant stretch of Highway 518 to
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help him out in identifying whose blue truck that was that was seen near Melissa.
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Now, update number three. And here's where you need to buckle up. So, toward the end of Melissa's episode, I
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told you about a strange encounter that Sierra had with a woman who came to her work not long after her mom went missing
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to give her $50 in graduation money. Supposedly, this woman was a long-time friend of Melissa's, so she drove 300
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miles from where she lived in Colorado with her fiance or her husband to give her this 50 bucks, no card, that yes,
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she could have mailed. There is something to this encounter that I believe is really important. I just need
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to get to the bottom of it. But, that is somehow getting harder to do, even though I now have more details.
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So, let me just kind of like re-tell you the story filling in more information. So, originally, when we talked to
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Sierra, she thought that that interaction happened in September, about 3 months after Melissa went missing.
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Mark, though, he remembered it happening in July. Well, they were both slightly off. And
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Sierra confirmed for us that she checked the notes on her phone, and now she is confident that that interaction happened
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on exactly August 8th. Now, Sierra had a note in her phone because this woman, Wendy is her name, gave Sierra her phone
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number. Now, is it even weirder that this woman gave her her number then would go on to deny knowing her? Thank
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you for asking. Yes, it is, but let me keep going. Sierra told us that it wasn't actually
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just Wendy and one man that showed up. Sierra recalls there being three people with Wendy when she came to her job.
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There was that man who was Wendy's husband or fiance, and then another man and woman. Now, when we originally
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talked to Mark and Sierra, they didn't give us the phone number that they had for Wendy. They just gave us her first
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name, and then when we pressed them for the last name, Sierra passed along from Mark the name that he thought it was.
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So, we were using public records to call a woman who matched that name in Colorado.
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Well, it turns out we were calling the wrong Wendy. Mark had the last name wrong by one letter, which would explain
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why that woman never called us back. Now, remember, Mata is the one who said that he spoke with Wendy, and she denied
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knowing Melissa or Sierra or Mark. Said that she hadn't driven to Taos, hadn't been there in years. So, at first, when
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I learned that we were contacting the wrong Wendy, I was like, "Oh crap, maybe he called the wrong person, too."
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But no, we confirmed Mata called the number Sierra got from the woman. He didn't find her by using the wrong last
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name. So, he is confident he spoke to the right Wendy. So, for some reason, she gave her phone number to Sierra, but
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then is denying knowing the family. It's not lost on anyone how weird this is, right? Like, I mean, actually think
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about it. There is no way Sierra or Mark just pulled a name and matching phone number out of their hat. And I know
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you're probably like, "Oh, okay, well, you know, they could have found somebody who had their number published online,
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and it was like some long con." But you mean to tell me that they just randomly found someone who actually did
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have ties to Taos, New Mexico? I mean, she admitted to Mata she had been to Taos, just not for years. And you can't
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even say like, "Oh, you know, hey, they just found some old name and number of a
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friend of Melissa's and then made up this encounter." Because then why is this woman claiming not to know Melissa?
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Mark says that he has known this woman for years. And Mata is clear that he absolutely believes Sierra is telling
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the truth. And he is just as shocked and can't explain why Wendy is denying knowing them. But still
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it gets weirder. So, when we finally got the real number for Wendy from Sierra we did a reverse
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number search in some of the databases that we use. The number does come back to Wendy but
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it's also connected to another couple. Which is very interesting knowing that Sierra said that there was another
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couple with Wendy when she showed up, right? Well, this is where you need to lock in or you might lose me. Are you
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ready? So, working on these updates with me were my reporter Nina and our booking
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producer Marilyn. Marilyn is the one who finds out about the other couple tied to
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the phone number. Now, this is all happening fast and in real time. So, as this pops up, she tells Nina, like, "Oh,
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weird, there's two more people." And I'm going to call these people John and Jane
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Smith. So, Nina just types John Smith, Colorado in to Google and starts seeing if she can find this guy. And one pops
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up and he's pictured with a woman. So, we shot that picture over to Sierra, "Did this look like the couple you saw?"
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And she said she is 99% sure that the other man and woman who came with Wendy that day are these
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people that we sent her. >> [snorts] >> So, we thought we were one step closer. But we obviously have to check and
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recheck things, right? Before we're going to publish an update. And we quickly realized something. The
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phone number was connected to a John S. Smith. The picture that Nina found was for John A. Smith. Nina was able to find
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pictures of John S. Smith, and they are not the same people. But, she had Marilyn send those photos over to
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Sierra, too, of John S. Smith. And Sierra said that she didn't recognize him. And I don't know if your brain is
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breaking the way that mine was, but like this doesn't make sense. Wendy is real.
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Wendy is connected to John S. Smith, but Wendy showed up to visit Sierra in tandem with a completely different John
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A. Smith. What is happening in this case? And you want to know the strangest part of all?
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John S. Smith, the one who was actually tied to the number connected to Wendy, he is connected to a company called
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Caterpillar Inc. According to their website, Caterpillar Inc. is shaping the future as the world's leading
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manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas
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turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Backed by one of the largest independent global dealer
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networks and financing services through Cat Financial, the company's primary business segments power and energy,
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construction industries, and resource industries are solving customers' toughest challenges through a commitment
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to commercial excellence and advanced technology. So, are you ready for it? Caterpillar Inc. has mad contracts with
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the Department of Defense. On April 29th, 2025, Caterpillar got a 1-year contract that totaled 83.4 million
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dollars for earthmoving and excavating equipment. On May 21st, 2025, they were awarded a contract that runs slightly
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over 1 year that as of today has paid out 97.1 million for earthmoving and excavating
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equipment. Now, these are just two of the most recent contracts I found on a government website. There are more that
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go back even further, but again, John S. Smith is not who Sierra saw. But, he is
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the one connected to the phone number that is also connected to Wendy who showed up to give Sierra 50 bucks, but
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now claims she doesn't know her. When we spoke to Mata, he did not remember hearing about the Smiths before we
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brought it up. He said that it might have popped up when he searched Wendy's number, but he wasn't at his desk when
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he called and he couldn't check his notes. So, he wrote it down during the call and he sounded intrigued.
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We're intrigued, too. I found an old presentation from 2011 that was made by Los Alamos National
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Laboratory for its work with the National Nuclear Security Administration and Caterpillar Inc. was a contributor
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on the study. So, I know the 2011 connection between Los Alamos and Caterpillar was years before Melissa
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went missing. But, maybe Mark's idea that Melissa got help from some subcontractor of the lab
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isn't that far-fetched after all. Or, maybe there is still information to be found.
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So, if you have anything you want to share with us, you can email us at [email protected].