EPISODE 506: Heather Caras Part 2 - What They Believed All Along

Last week, you learned about Heather Caras’ life, her disappearance, and the trail of confusion that followed. On January 24, 2025, Heather had planned to take her younger son on a special outing after a minor disagreement the night before. According to him, that morning, Heather said she was going outside to start her vehicle, but she never returned. After waiting for some time, he walked to school to tell someone that something was wrong.

What followed was a series of strange events. Instead of involving social services, local residents were called in to look after Heather’s children, a decision that struck her friends as deeply concerning. When photos of Heather’s home began circulating, they showed some rooms inside her home in disarray. Her friends weren’t sure whether Heather had made the mess herself, searching for something, or whether someone else had ransacked the house.

The next day, one of Heather’s neighbors found her truck parked at Beaver Bay, miles west of her Linton, North Dakota home. The scene was baffling: a trail of footprints in the snow that ended abruptly, and a new pair of shoes, the same brand Heather always wore, left behind, but not a pair her friends recognized. To make matters worse, there were conflicting accounts about her phone. Some said it was found in the truck; others pointed to photos showing her purse and phone still sitting on a counter inside her home.

Back home in North Carolina, Heather’s friends tried to make sense of it all. Locals seemed to be pointing fingers in every direction, and sometimes, back at Heather herself. Then came a press release from the Emmons County Sheriff’s Office that left them in shock. It said that Heather “may have previously reached out to an unknown prior acquaintance living out of state to assist in leaving the area and may have taken steps to avoid detection or being located.” To those who knew her best, that explanation wasn’t plausible. Heather was devoted to her sons. The idea that she would simply walk away from them, from everything, didn’t fit the person they knew.

Months later, at the end of May, Heather’s remains were found in a field miles from where her truck had been parked. But finding Heather didn’t bring answers. It only deepened the mystery. How had she ended up there, in the freezing cold? Why would she have gone there at all? The medical examiner couldn’t determine the cause or manner of her death. There were no signs of trauma, and toxicology tests indicated that there were no drugs in her system that could have caused an overdose. Her death was ruled undetermined.

Yet, despite that uncertainty, the Emmons County Sheriff’s Office publicly stated that the autopsy “confirmed what investigators had believed all along,” that there was no foul play, and that Heather had suffered a mental health crisis. For her friends, that statement felt like a rewriting of history. From the beginning, officials had said Heather left voluntarily with an unknown acquaintance. Now, they claimed this had been their belief all along. It felt like an easy way to close the book on a case that still didn’t make sense.

Today, we’re going to explore where things stand now that Heather has been found, take a closer look at her life in the months before she vanished, and the questions that still linger today.

If you have any information about the disappearance and death of Heather Caras, please contact the Emmons County Sheriff’s Office at 701-254-4411.

EPISODE 505: Heather Caras Part 1 - Footprints in the Snow

On the morning of January 24, 2025, 39-year-old Heather Caras disappeared from her home in Linton, North Dakota. When she stepped outside, her two teenage sons were still at home. One of her sons later recalled that Heather said she was going to start her vehicle, but she never came back. This was out of character for Heather, who was known to be a devoted and protective mother, given that both of her boys have special needs. When she didn’t return, one of the boys walked to school to sound the alarm that something was wrong. 

The next day, Heather’s truck was found at Beaver Bay, about fifteen miles west of Linton. The scene there was strange: a set of footprints leading away from the vehicle, then abruptly ending, and a pair of shoes neatly placed in the snow.

In the days that followed, few clues emerged. Then came a statement from law enforcement claiming that Heather had “left her family and the area willingly with the assistance of an unknown acquaintance and was not known to be in any danger.” To those who knew Heather best, that theory wasn’t just out of character; it was unthinkable.

As we were preparing to cover Heather’s disappearance, news broke in late May that human remains had been found not far from Beaver Bay. They were later confirmed to be Heather’s remains, but the autopsy results left those who knew and loved her with even more questions than answers. 

If you have any information about the disappearance or death of Heather Caras, please contact the Emmons County Sheriff’s Office at 701-254-4411.

EPISODE 504: Whitney Wilken

Whitney Wilken had always been known as a free spirit to those who loved her. She grew up in South Dakota but later moved west to Olympia, Washington. Life in Olympia wasn’t always easy for Whitney, and the distance made it hard for her family to know what was going on in her day-to-day life. Still, they stayed connected, and her family could always count on hearing from her.

Then, in October of 2019, the calls from Whitney stopped. Her family reached out to friends in Olympia who went to look for her, but it was as if Whitney had vanished without a trace. No one seemed to know where she had gone or why. When Whitney was reported missing to the Olympia Police Department, their search yielded few answers, and the questions only grew heavier with time. In the years that followed, new information surfaced that raised even more concern. Other women in the same area, with circumstances similar to Whitney’s, had been victimized, leading investigators to consider whether her disappearance might be connected to something much darker.

Six years later, Whitney’s loved ones are still waiting for answers. They hope that by sharing her story, someone out there might remember seeing or hearing something that could finally bring them closer to finding her.

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Whitney Wilken, please contact the Olympia Police Department. For urgent or time-sensitive tips, call 911 or the non-emergency line at (360) 704-2740. For other information, please call (360) 753-8300 and ask to speak with the detective sergeant assigned to Whitney’s case.