Moving to Crestone and Final Days

Hey, it's Tyler, and if you're enjoying the Minds of Madness, I've got another podcast you should check out. It's the Crime House Original podcast, The Final Hours. hosted by Sarah Turnney and Courtney Nicole, it's all about the last moments before someone goes missing. You might also already know Sarah from our podcast Voices for Justice and Courtney from her popular True Crime Instagram account Crime with Ct, withith Sarah having lived through the pain of her sister going missing, and Courtney having seen firsthand how crime can impact a family, the two come together to bring lived experience into every case, looking not only at what happened, but what led up to it. Each episode of the final hours examines the moments just before person disappears, the routines, the timelines, and the small details that often get overlooked. because every disappearance has a moment where everything still feels normal, a text that doesn't raise concern, a routine that goes unchanged, a door that closes, just like it always has unt esn't? The final hours puts those moments under a microscope. In this preview of the fininal hours, Sarah and Courtney are examining the twenty sixteen disappearance of twenty nine year old mother, Crystal Risinger, who vanished in Colorado, leaving behind a mystery that still haunts investigators today. And if you like what you hear, follow the final hours on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Amazon music, or wherever you listen to podcasts to listen to the full episode. Crystal Anne Reisinger spent her whole life searching for a community When her family couldn't care for her, she found surrogate parents. When she struggled in the big city, she moved out to a small town And then just when she thought she'd found her place in the world, she vanished from it entirely Is Crystal really gone? or did she find a new life? Maybe somewhere off the grid? Well, before we explore where Crystal may have ended up, let's talk about our journey there When people describe twenty nine year old Crystal Anne Ryinger, they always mention her piercing blue eyes and wild infectious laughter She's curious, compassionate, intense, energetic, and cool Her bleach blonde, dreadlocked hair, tattoos, face piercings, and boohemian fashion stand out in a crowd. She's spiritual, connected to the Eth and supposedly clairvoyant Krista was born on november eighteenth, nineteen eighty seven in Phoenix, Arizona Her mom was still a teenager when she had her And they shared a bedroom in the family home together with her aunt Jennifer Her mom was schizophrenic which often made it difficult for her to parent effectively. But Crystal's grandmother took care of her, especially while her mom was in treatment. Other times she would stay with her aunt Jennifer in whatever state she lived in at the time California, Florida, Colorado. Then after Crystal's granda died, the state sentered to Denver, Colorado to live with her sister Jennifer full time But when they had a falling out, Crystal no longer felt she had a stable place to stay Then along came the Irvan family Yeah, so this period is a bit murky and full of ups and downs But around this time, fifteen year old Crystal met a boy. His name has been kept private, but we know he and Crystal became good friends and dated for a while And her boyfriend's parents whose names we do know, Rogney and Debbie Irvin took a liking to Crystal, which was why they offered to take her in after they learned about her situation. The gig her room in their newly finished basement, got crystal to school, bought her clothes, and fed her. She even became a best friend and sister figure to their biological daughter, Amy. but at some point, tragedy struck Robney and Debbie lost their son to suicide which in a heartbreaking way brought them even closer to Crystal For those of you listening, if you're ever struggling with thoughts of suicide or have lost someone by suicide, you can call our text nine hundred eighty eight They offer amazing resources to help get you through this time in your life Sooner or later, though, Crystal had to move on After she graduated high school She took classes on and off at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, two hundred miles southwest of Denver Crystal got straight As. She liked to party, but she didn't get in trouble either. Crystal was living the life most college kids do Eventually she did move back to Denver, though She was there in october twenty eleven when a mutual friend introduced her to a guy named Elijah Ganna Sparks flew, and they fell in love instantly. They moved in together and Crystal got pregnant In twenty thirteen, she gave birth to a daughter at the age of twenty six After that, Crystal's friends noticed a glow about her. She ate vegan and hardly drank. She rarely went out. Her main focus was being a mom Rodney and Debbie took on the role of the baby's grandparents, and while things didn't work out between Crystal and Eli, they happily co parented By twenty fourteen, Crystal was back in school studying psychology and sociology again at Western Colorado University. She also taught independent study courses on tarot and spirituality. Crystal was looking for religious enlightenment, studying Hinduism and Buddhism She was focused on awareness and living a peaceful life Her motto was do no harm And she felt like living in a big city wasn't in line with that ethos She believed they were toxic and wanted to get in touch with the earth and her spirituality. So during a break from school, Crystal decided to take a trip about two hours away from campus to check out Crestone, Colorado Yeah, so let me give you a little bit of context on this place It's located at the foot of the Songre de Cristo Mountains near the Great Sand dunes, so visitors flood the area in the summer to enjoy the outdoors But typically, it's a tiny town of only one hundred and thirty two people o two square miles, it's about three blocks by three blocks. There's not much more than an organic grocery store, coffee shop ice cream parlor, gas station, and a brewery that serves food Among its residents, you'll find a few kinds of people, off the gritters and spirituality seekers. There's also a select group of trust fund kids who have some bad habits on their parents' dime, because while Krestone is small, it has a big drug culture But Cryristol was attracted to it for other reasons, mainly because of Prestone's reputation as the new age religious capital of the world. It all started in nineteen seventy seven When a Canadian power company tycoon and UN diplomat named Maurice Strong bought a two hundred thousand acre plot of land next to Crestone While his wife Hana was visiting, a local mystic named Glenn Anderson showed up at her front door. He told her that he' predicted a foreigner would come and build an international religious center and he believed Hauna was that person. The strrongs were planning to build a retirement community on that land But Honner ran with the new direction Instead, she and Marie set up the Manitou Foundation to grant land and money to religious groups who wanted to establish centers in the area There are now over two dozen spiritual centers in and around the Crestone area, and several thousand truth seekers, people dedicated to discovering the deeper depths of reality. But long before the Strongs arrived, the Navajo nation had considered the area around Crestone to be sacred grounds And that's what really drew Crystal in She was fascinated with indigenous American traditions, and their beliefs about land were significant to her Crystal seemed to find her place in Krestone. She briefly went back to Gunnison for classes, but she came back shortly after, rented an apartment, got a job at a local brewery, and started singing with the band Her daughter usually stayed in Denver with Eli where Crystal would visit, but sometimes Crystal took her daughter down to Crestone with her Crystal was trying to settle in and lay down roots so she could have her daughter join her full time And when they weren't together, Crystal spoke to her and Eli on the phone nearly every day However, the move created a lot of other changes in Crystal's life that it seems she wasn't expecting Unfortunately, Crystal was hoping to go down to Crestone to sort of cleanse and ground herself. Instead, she kind of gets caught up in the heavy party scene there By twenty sixteen, Crystals' experimenting with drugs harder substances than ever before. Part of the reason why is because it overlaps with the spirituality seen there. In June, she moves into a studio apartment in the center of town by herself But shortly after getting the apartment, she loses her job at the brewery She has to rely on government assistance, and the situation just keeps escalating A week or two later, several tenants complained to Crystal's friend and landlord Aa MacDonald They say sketchy people have been coming and going from her unit, making noise at all hours. Then in mid June, there's a shift Krystal puts her partying on hold because she claimed she had a premonition feeleing in her gut that something very bad is going to happen to her and Eli, and it's going to happen soon, so she calls him to let him know And she turns out to be right Two days later, Eli is walking home when suddenly everything goes black He wakes up in a hospital with almost every bill in his face broken, including his eye sockets As he recovers, he learns what happened A mugger stabbed him in the face and beat him nearly to death So Crystal goes back to Denver to take care of Eli But she only stays for a few days On Wednesday, june twenty second, Crystal texts Debbie Irvin to say she's back in Krestone, but the trouble Crystal predicted isn't over yet