Asha Kreimer was far away from home in the early fall of 2015 living on Mendocino County’s primitive coastline. Growing up in Australia, she moved to California’s Bay Area in October 2011 and fell in love with Jamai Gayle. The couple moved to Albion finding jobs and living the tranquil, rural life known to many on California’s North Coast.
In September 2015, Asha showed signs of mental distress including insomnia and sporadically entering catatonic states. Asha’s mental anguish intensified to the point that she was rushed to Fort Bragg’s hospital where Gayle looked on as doctors physically restrained his girlfriend. Not deeming her a threat to herself or others, doctors eventually sent her home where Jamai and a visiting childhood friend attempted to soothe Asha in her torment.
On September 21, 2015, Jamai and Sally Scales, the childhood friend, thought it beneficial to get Asha out of the house, sightseeing, and eat a meal at a local restaurant. The trio went to Point Arena’s Rollerville Cafe for breakfast. Asha did not touch her plate, engaged little in conversation, and told Gayle she was going to use the restroom. This would be the last confirmed sighting of Asha.
Her disappearance would become one of Mendocino County’s most notorious cold cases spawning YouTube videos, podcasts, and documentaries. Eight years later, Asha Kreimer’s fate remains a mystery to loved ones and law enforcement.
Asha’s mother Jeannie Kreimer told us yesterday she is currently in Mendocino County traveling up and down California’s North Coast searching for any sign of her missing daughter. Despite not knowing Asha’s fate for eight years, Jeannie told us, “She is definitely around and I want to let people know I am very grateful for the help. I am very hopeful to meet with her one day.”
She asked that if anyone locally knows anything about Asha’s disappearance to get in contact with her at (707)513-9138 promising she would be “discreet”.
Today, on the eighth anniversary of Asha’s disappearance, we are republishing our former report on her life and her disappearance.
Asha Kreimer was born on May 2, 1989, in Hilo, Hawaii to Russell and Jeannie Kreimer.. In 1991, with her older sister Gancie, Asha’s family relocated to Redcliffe, Australia where Asha’s mother Jeannie studied midwifery. In 1996, Jeannie and Russell separated and Jeannie took a job as a remote area nurse deep in Australia’s interior in an aboriginal community called Pipalyatjara. Asha and her sister attend school in nearby Alice Springs that Jeannie characterized as a “small, unsafe town where there exists a clash of cultures. There is a disparity between all the different peoples, Somalis, Muslims, personnel from the Pine Gap American Army base.” Jeannie remembered that her daughter Asha “was scared of living there.”
Asha’s mother recalled a seminal moment in her daughter’s adolescence that occurred in Alice Springs: “When she was 12 or 13, Asha took an early bus home and ended up walking home where she was stopped by a police officer and questioned about a violent rape that happened in the area. After this, Asha had trouble leaving the house and we decided to send her to boarding school.”
After briefly attending a private school in Alice Springs, Asha chose to attend Saint Peter’s College, 1,500 miles away on the western edge of Brisbane, capital of Queensland. There, Jeannie said her daughter proved “highly-intelligent, well-liked, and loved by her friends.” She participated in track and field and soccer. Asha’s high school friend Jillian Van Koutrik remembered Asha as “popular and kind of an old soul”. Van Koutrik characterized Asha as somewhat of a trendsetter: “She always knew about the ‘cool things’ before anyone else.”
After high school, Asha moved to Mullumbimby, Australia which served as her mother Jeannie’s base while she worked stints within Australia’s aboriginal communities. Asha took an interest in journalism school but decided to take some time off. She worked at a place called The Arts Factory where she and her sister studied remedial massage. Jillian Van Koutrik, a high school friend of Asha’s, characterized this phase of Asha’s life as “quiet.” Asha confided in Jillian a determined desire to travel.
Jeannie returned home from working a stint in the Australian interior and found that her two daughters had “hatched a plan” to move to California. For Jeannie, her daughters’ decision to move was “out of the blue.” In June 2011, Gancie and Asha boarded a flight to the United States and found their new home in San Francisco.
Jeannie helped her daughters get situated in a San Francisco studio apartment and Asha got a job quickly working at Burke Williams Day Spa. In a twist of fate that would alter Asha’s life in the United States, within weeks of calling San Francisco home she met Jamai Gayle, the man she would call her boyfriend and lived with up until the day she disappeared.
Jamai recalls how they first met: “We met on my birthday at a party. Asha and her sister showed up there.” Commenting on what initially drew them together, Jamai said, “We had a lot in common. We’re both of mixed race. Both of our mothers were nurses. Both of our fathers were musicians. She also knew my brothers that had traveled in Australia.”
Jamai and Asha’s intimacy grew fast. “We started to hang out pretty much every day,” Jamai said. Asha’s relationship with Jamai created distance between her two daughters but Asha’s fondness for her new relationship proved powerful. Jamai introduced Asha to his family who resides in the Bay Area and they moved in together living in San Francisco’s Mission District.
In 2013, Jamai and Asha found San Francisco’s housing market difficult to afford so they began browsing Craigslist where they saw a listing for an Albion property nestled amongst the redwoods. Moving to Mendocino’s coastline, Asha found employment at the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek and Albion’s Digging Dog Nursery. In a Skype message to her high school friend Jillian Van Koutrik, Asha spoke proudly of her new home describing it having “two houses and a jacuzzi” and invited her to come to visit their bucolic home anytime.
Asha’s mother Jeannie did grow concerned that her daughter’s relocation to Mendocino County converged with a habit of recreational marijuana use. “Both sides of Asha’s family had a predisposition towards mental illness,” Jeannie explained.
In September 2015, the tectonic plates of Asha’s mind began to irrevocably shift leading to her disappearance. In the first week of September, she went to Los Angeles where she visited her older sister Ganci to celebrate her birthday. Jamai, in a document entitled “Timeline of Asha Disappearance,” described picking Asha up from her trip on September 6, 2015 where she expressed wanting “to make changes in her life” including getting a driver’s license and improving her relationships with people. Jamai described Asha being nearly silent during the majority of the drive north to Mendocino County and seeming relieved when they arrived back at their property in Albion.
Jamai sensed that something was different about Asha after returning from this trip to Los Angeles: “There was never any depression like what she was like when she got back from LA. There were always ups and downs. She got really really quiet, reserved.”
Asha’s despondency continued after they returned home. Jamai said Asha’s overall demeanor changed, becoming “quiet and sad” seemingly “not trusting her own judgment about everything” Jamai described Asha ruminating on all of the personal issues that she had since they had first met. She confided in Jamai that she wanted to get married and have a baby but was hoping to see a doctor because of a difficulty they were having in conceiving. Jamai described him and Asha discussing “therapy and she said that she wanted to go.”
Jamai speculated another factor in Asha’s angst was “the upcoming visits of two of her friends”: Olivia Ponton, a friend of Asha’s older sister whom Asha had met only once, and Sally Scales, a childhood friend of Asha’s. Asha’s nerves manifested in wanting to clean the house “even though we had been cleaning” since she returned from Los Angeles.
When Olivia arrived, Jamai wrote she was acting “okay, still depressed, but talking about it.” Jamai noticed that Asha was not “eating as much as usual” and her sleep patterns had been significantly disrupted since her return from Los Angeles. “She would wake up at 3:00 am. Before that, she would always sleep through the night.”
Asha seemed particularly anxious about Sally Scales’ visit, Jamai noticed. “She kept apologizing for it” which confused Jamai because “Asha had spoken of her throughout our relationship and said she was like a sister.” Asha even suggested that Sally would be “more comfortable at [Jamai’s] mother’s house in San Francisco” saying she would rather Sally not stay in their house. When Jamai asked why he said: “I could not really get a straightforward answer.”
On September 16, Jamai and Asha drove to San Francisco to pick up Sally Scales from San Francisco International Airport. The trio went to Jamai’s mother’s house for dinner which would be the “last full meal that Asha ate before she disappeared.” Jamai confided in his mother that evening that Asha had been depressed and requested that she talk to Asha.
The next day, September 17, Jamai, Sally, and Asha traveled to the town of Mendocino to purchase wine, cheese, and cold cuts from the Harvest Market. Oddly, in the middle of browsing, “Asha left the store early and went and sat in the car.” Sally commented to Jamai that Asha seemed depressed and surmised that she “liked the country lifestyle but didn’t want to be so far away from the city”. Jamai noticed that Asha ate meager portions including “a few bites of bread and two glasses of wine.”
On Friday, September 18, Asha came downstairs from the room her friend Sally was staying and shared with Jamai suddenly recalling memories of childhood sexual trauma. Dumbfounded by Asha’s sudden confessions, Jamai inquired about her unexpected acknowledgement of childhood trauma. Asha told Jamai that Sally and she had been reminiscing over childhood photos and a picture of a white house prompted the memories of abuse.
When considering the veracity of Asha’s troubling claims during her slide into psychosis, it is essential to consider delusions are a common symptom of manic episodes. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms experienced by those in the throes of a bipolar schizoaffective episode include “Delusions — having false, fixed beliefs, despite evidence to the contrary.” Other symptoms that Asha demonstrated, “Bizarre or unusual behavior”, “Symptoms of depression, such as feeling empty, sad or worthless”, and “Periods of manic mood, with an increase in energy and a decreased need for sleep over several days, and behaviors that are out of character”
Hoping to find solace for a clearly troubled Asha, Jamai suggested she seek a mental health professional. Asha agreed to seek help and they contacted local therapists, clinics, and women’s groups in the area. Jamai and Asha ultimately “made a plan to go on Monday since the clinics were closed for the weekend.” That night, Jamai woke up to Asha shouting, “I haven’t gotten over my father’s death…” These late-night outbursts would continue to occur until the last night before her disappearance.
Asha continued to be quiet and withdrawn the following day, Saturday, September 19. Sitting with Asha, Jamai, Sally, and Olivia attempted to engage her in conversation, and Asha would “shrug her shoulders” and would strangely gesticulate with her hands twisting “her wrists back and forth with her fingers spread wide”. Jamai said the behavior was “odd and creepy” and despite attempts to communicate, Asha “wouldn’t respond when spoken to”.
Jamai asked Asha, “Do you feel like hurting yourself?” She said she did, prompting Jamai to call a crisis hotline. Jamai said, “I put Asha on the phone to talk to him but she would not speak.” The call center staff member said all of the local clinics were closed and the next step to address Asha’s crisis was taking her to the emergency room. Asha declined and throughout that day Sally and Jamai would check-in with her confirming that she did not want to seek emergency treatment.
On Sunday, September 20, hoping to please Asha and lighten her mood, Jamai took her and their guests to Asha’s favorite restaurant. There she ate only a “nibble”. As they sat eating, Asha told Jamai that she wanted to call her mother. Not having cell phone reception or the internet, Jamai assured Asha that when they got home she could call her mother.
Upon arriving home, Jamai gave Asha the phone and she immediately dialed 911 and hung up. The emergency dispatcher called back and Jamai “gave Asha the phone and again, she wouldn’t speak.” Jamai asked once again if it was time they went to the emergency room and Asha acquiesced. Jamai told the emergency dispatcher “what had been going on with Asha and that we would be heading to the emergency room.”
As Jamai drove Asha to the Mendocino Coast District Hospital’s Emergency Room, she told Jamai that she thought he “was not faithful to her in the beginning of [their] relationship”. Jamai assured her that “whatever it is, don’t worry about it and that we would deal with it later”. He told her “right now, let’s just worry about getting you some help.”
Arriving at the hospital, a nurse escorted Jamai and Asha into a room where Jamai “explained to the nurse that she was under emotional and mental distress.” Placing Asha in a wheelchair, the nurse pushed her into the emergency room and before entering, Asha “put her feet on the floor abruptly stopping the wheelchair and stood up, then nearly fell over.” Jamai and the nurse “stabilized her and she reluctantly walked through the doors.”
After just “five steps into the emergency room”, Asha’s condition suddenly intensified and “her legs, arms, and her body straightened” and her “eyes got wide, and she stumbled backwards into the nurse’s station.” This commotion caught the attention of the entire emergency room. A doctor inquired whether “Asha was on drugs. I said no.” As Jamai explained Asha’s behaviors over the previous days, Asha suddenly “got up and bolted out of the emergency room.” Jamai attempted to restrain her but “she had super strength.” Hospital staff did not offer to assist Jamai as he chased after the agitated Asha exiting the hospital onto the street outside. Jamai “verbally and physically tried to get her back in the hospital” but Asha resisted and got out of Jamai’s hold. Following the instructions of an on-looking nurse, Jamai called 911 and followed Asha from a safe distance.
Asha proceeded to walk west toward Fort Bragg’s Main Street while Jamai pursued “talking to a 911 dispatcher.” At one point, Asha approached a passing car occupied by a family and “tried to get in”. The family “didn’t let her in and drove away.” Jamai then watched a “creepy druggie looking man” take notice of Asha and pull over to speak with her. Jamai observed Asha pull the door handles of the man’s vehicle trying to get in. The man appeared to roll down his window, “look around”, and upon taking notice of Jamai watching them, drove away.
Quickly, a Fort Bragg Police officer arrived and asked Jamai what was happening. Jamai explained the situation and the officer questioned Asha. Unable to answer the officer’s inquiries, the officer decided to place Asha under a 5150 hold which refers to the California law code for the temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness. Asha was placed in handcuffs and Jamai “rode with her in the back of the police car back to the emergency room.”
Upon arrival at the emergency room, restraining Asha required two police officers, a paramedic, and three hospital staff members to wrestle her into a four-point restraint. As Asha writhed in the hospital bed, a doctor inquired about Asha’s medical history. Jamai divulged multiple members of Asha’s family have mental illness and had experienced manic episodes. The doctor directly asked Asha if she was “hearing voices or seeing things” and Asha said she was not. Consulting with Jamai in private, the doctor believed Asha was “experiencing a psychosis and a manic bipolar episode”.
Hospital staff directed Asha and Jamai to wait while a psychiatric social worker arrived from Ukiah. During that time, a gentle nurse asked if Asha would be willing to cooperate in providing a blood and urine sample. Asha obliged. After collecting the urine sample, the orderly surmised that Asha had a urinary tract infection because the urine was cloudy and had an orange/yellow color. Asha attempted to leave “about 15 times” but the orderly would calmly tell her “that she had to sit down or lay back down and she would.”
When the psychiatric social worker arrived, he asked Asha if she intended to hurt herself. Jamai described her response: “she did not answer but instead, she got up and reached for a piece of nylon rope that was holding some ducting to the ceiling.” Jamai saw this response as a “suicidal gesture”. Asha then started repeating, “I killed Joy. Eddie killed Joy.” Asha was referring to Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan, their neighbor and Joy May Taylor, his long-time girlfriend who were both safe at the time. In response, the psychiatric social worker responded “I don’t know about Eddie. I don’t care about Joy” All I care about is you and how you’re doing.” Jamai expressed that it felt like the worker was “ignoring her message.”
Asha once again reached for the nylon rope on the ceiling while the psychiatric social worker “filled out paperwork.” Reading aloud what was required to be released from a 5150 hold, the psychiatric social worker asked Jamai who, besides himself, should be named on the documentation. Jamai instructed the social worker to include both his and Asha’s mother on the HIPPA documentation. Seeking Asha’s signature, the social worker held the document out for Asha to sign and she refused. Jamai said the social worker “put the pen on her chest” and she proceeded to “scribble all over the HIPPA form.” In response, Jamai said the social worker said: “you know that’s a legal document you just scribbled out.” Based on Asha’s behavior towards the social worker, Jamai assumed Asha would remain on the 5150 hold.
The social worker told Asha about two patients who attempted suicide that he had evaluated that day. Afterward, Asha signed the document and the social worker asked her directly if she wanted to be released from the 5150 hold or go to a mental health facility. In response, she said “I don’t want to be lonely.”
Hoping to calm Asha in her troubled state, the social worker consulted with one of the emergency room doctors to provide her with Ativan which the doctor denied. The social worker provided Jamai with a list of other clinics that were available the next day. During this exchange, the social worker revealed that he, in fact, was the one who took Jamai’s phone to the crisis hotline the previous day. Jamai was shocked at the information. The social worker officially took Asha off the 5150 hold, a male nurse handed Jamai discharge paperwork, and encouraged them to “come back if you need to.”
The drive home was punctuated by more of Asha’s disturbing words and behaviors. She admitted to Jamai that in Australia she had an abortion, that she had been unfaithful to him and slept with one of his friends, and continued to repeat, “I killed Joy.” At one point, on the darkened, rural Middle Ridge Road, Jamai said that Asha tried to jump from the vehicle.
Upon returning home, Asha’s suicidal gestures continued. Jamai offered her a Tylenol PM to help her sleep and Asha grabbed for the bottle “as if she wanted to take all the pills.” While cooking dinner, Jamai opened the silverware drawer and Asha “reached in the drawer behind me for a knife.” At one point that evening, their neighbor Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan came and smoked a cigarette with Jamai and offered words of comfort to Asha.
That night, Jamai stayed up while Asha’s erratic behaviors continued. She stayed fully dressed throughout the night. He heard her start the car multiple times even though she did not have a driver’s license. He described finding her outside holding a candle burning a piece of paper. Jamai said, “I asked her what she was doing and she pointed the candle fire to me. I got upset and I told her she cannot play with fire.” At one point in the night, Sally and Jamai attempted to soothe Asha and offer her food and water but she refused, throwing away “all of the food and chocolate we gave her.”
On the morning of Monday, September 21, Jamai called his mother hoping she would talk with Asha. Overhearing their conversation, Jamai noticed Asha using a “fake” and “upbeat” voice falsely claiming the hospital had provided her with medication. Jamai took the phone away, told his mother what had really happened, and she expressed to Jamai that Asha should be on medication immediately.
Concerned about how little food she had eaten, Jamai offered to make her a protein shake which she took a sip of and “gave me the coldest stare I’ve ever seen in my life and spit it back in the cup.” Distracted in the kitchen, Jamai failed to notice Asha leave the house. He went outside and found her “jacket lying in the middle of the road that leads off of our property.” After searching the house and immediate yard, Sally and Jamai got in the car and drove to Middle Ridge Road where they found her “walking calmly” and brought her back home. Moments after getting her back home, she disappeared again. Strangely, Jamai found her “standing by the side of a tree watching us look for her.”
Sally’s care and concern for her childhood friend were becoming strained. Hoping to ease the tension and provide Asha an outlet, Jamai suggested they take their dogs on a walk but Asha was not interested. Confused, Jamai asked Asha what her goal was in trying to run off. Her response was clear and troubling. He said she told him, “I want to kill myself.” After she stated her motivations for running away, Asha turned around and sprinted away faster than Jamai had “had ever seen her move in [his] life.” She seemed impervious to pain when her sandals flew off and her feed “pounded” on the gravel road with no effect.
After a brief period of time, Asha “burst back into the house out of breath” telling Sally and Olivia that she had felt like running. Jamai noticed a call from Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan, their neighbor, and in a voicemail, he expressed deep concern for Asha’s well-being. Sally suggested that they “take a drive down the coast” hoping it would calm Asha down. Jamai remembered Asha’s affinity for sleeping in the car and stories about long, relaxing car rides with Sally growing up in Australia. Despite the need to follow up at a clinic, Jamai thought it prudent to provide Asha a respite from the chaos of the previous day. As they drove on Middle Ridge Road heading away from their property, Eddie was in the road and when Jamai rolled down his window to greet him, he pointed at Asha and warned Jamai, “Do not let her out of your sight!”
Jamai, Sally, and Asha drove south on Highway 1 admiring the austere Mendocino coastline and Sally suggested they stop for breakfast. Knowing Asha’s ritual of morning coffee and hoping she would eat, they parked their car just outside of the Point Arena Lighthouse to eat at the Rollerville Cafe, an old school American diner.
The trio entered the establishment, were quickly assigned a table, and a waitress took their order and chatted with Sally. Jamai said Asha “sat and said nothing.” Asha was not communicative with the waitress and did not touch the meal she ordered. An Alaskan fisherman came up to their table at one point to strike a conversation regaling them with stories of fishing in the Arctic. While this man spoke, at one point Jamai noticed “Asha started to laugh in a very peculiar manner.” Examining her emotionality, Jamai thought “she looked as if she was laughing and crying at the same time.” Jamai said, “This would be last time I really looked at Asha’s face.”
After they finished, Sally asked where she could find the restroom. Jamai said, The waitress directed her out back and, as soon as Sally “opened the side door of the restaurant, Asha said ‘I’m going to go to the bathroom too.’” Jamai said he repeated loudly, “Oh, you’re going to the bathroom, too” in hopes Sally would hear him and keep her eye on Asha. The image of Asha leaving the Rollerville Cafe out the side door would be burned in Jamai’s mind forever- it would be the last time he ever saw her.
Asha walked out of the restaurant between 10:30am-11:00, Jamai recalls. While waiting for the women to use the restroom, Jamai went to the car. Thinking back on his neighbor Eddie’s advice to not let her out of her sight, Jamai got out of his car to check on her. At the same time Sally approached the car and was immediately concerned because she realized her assumption that Asha was with Jamai was wrong. Jamai recalled, “Sally comes around the corner and puts her hands up and says, ‘Asha is not with you?’ I said, ‘She followed you.’ Sally said she didn’t see her.”
For the next three hours, Jamai and Sally frantically searched the nearby roads, fields, and forests for any sign of Asha. With the restaurant being a quarter mile from Highway 1, Jamai and Sally hoped that Asha had hitchhiked home so they sped north. When they found the house empty, Sally decided to stay behind at the Albion home in case Asha arrived and Jamai would return to the cafe continuing his search. Jamai explained that as he drove south “I called 911 reporting her missing.” Jamai returned to the parking lot near the Point Arena Lighthouse and walked the cliffsides calling out Asha’s name. Jamai noticed a Mendocino County Sheriff scouring the area for Asha. For approximately two hours Jamai traveled between the Rollerville Cafe and Point Arena searching for any sign of Asha to no avail.
Jamai finally returned to Albion to check in with Sally hoping Asha might have returned in his absence. Using the “Find my iPhone” app, Sally and Jamai were able to deduce that Asha’s phone was close to the property but they could not locate it. It would be two days later when Jamai was outside that he found her iPhone obscured by foliage. Later, Jamai surmised that at some point during the night/morning she dropped it on the lawn.
Over the next three days, efforts to search for Asha mounted. Jamai produced flyers and distributed them up and down Highway 1. Friends started to arrive offering aid in the search for Asha, including Jeannie Kremier, Asha’s mother, and Jamai’s mother. Jeannie said she was in “California within 48 hours of Asha missing,” flying into San Francisco where she was picked up by Jamai’s mom.
Three days after Asha went missing, the neighbor Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan told Jamai that he had actually seen Asha on the morning she disappeared before they had driven south to Point Arena. He had found Asha on his property, attempting to enter a trailer, as if “she was trying to hide out.” Asha confessed to Eddie a series of disturbing claims including, “Jamai beats [our German shepard]”, “I killed Joy [Eddie’s girlfriend of 15 years] and also provided a graphic description of sexual abuse she experienced as a child. Knowing of Asha’s recent 5150 and hoping to help Jamai, Eddie put his jacket around her and encouraged her to return home. Eddie told Jamai that she dropped the jacket on the ground and walked down the road where she would be picked up later by Jamai and Sally. After hearing this disturbing information from Eddie, Jamai shared what he had heard with Jeannie and Gancie. Jeannie characterized the presentation of the claims of sexual molestation as Jamai attempting to “deflect responsibility”.
Coincidentally, three years after Asha disappeared, her neighbor Eddie would also. According to his entry on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Loral “Eddie” Pratt Ryan went missing on September 1, 2018 after being seen at the Albion Store heading to Fort Bragg. At the time of his disappearance, he was 52 years old.
Over the next few weeks, unconfirmed sightings began to emerge. On October 2, Jamai received an anonymous phone call from a woman who said she was “100% that she saw Asha in Gualala about four days after she went missing.” The anonymous caller recalled seeing Asha at a supermarket getting in a green, older model Neon Geo with four surfboards on top driven by an older man. After hearing this, searchers went to the Gualala supermarket showing employees pictures of Asha who said “she looked familiar” but they were not sure when they saw her.
Since 2015, those close to Asha have lived what Jamai calls “a daily nightmare”. Many online sleuths have suggested Jamai is directly involved with Asha’s disappearance. Mendocino County Sheriff Offices Public Information Officer Gregory Van Patten simply said, “We do not consider Jamai a person of interest. There is no information to suggest he is connected to her disappearance.”
Asha Kreimer’s disappearance has been investigated by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office since she vanished. Van Patten described the case as unique because her disappearance occurred in broad daylight, in front of a restaurant’s patrons and staff.
Van Patten said MCSO conducted a thorough ground search of the area and searched the nearby beaches and oceans to no avail.
Van Patten theorized about possible scenarios that explain Asha’s disappearance. Considering the proximity the Rollerville Cafe is to the ocean, Van Patten speculated she could have walked off into the ocean. Scenarios that include other parties that Van Patten described were her voluntarily obtaining a ride from a passerby or non-voluntarily, she could’ve been abducted by one or more persons when she left that restaurant. Lastly, Van Patten speculated that she could have purposefully left the scene with the goal to “drop off the face of the earth.”
Van Patten conceded that at this point “The investigation into Asha’s disappearance has gone cold.” He hoped for “that one person who has information that could bust through the door of our understanding.”
Asha’s disappearance had a resurgence in public awareness when the Netflix documentary Murder Mountain interviewed Jeannie Kreimer about her daughter vanishing and included footage of her distributing posters and asking around Garberville if anyone had seen her daughter.
Jeannie explained she was in Garberville when a man she struck up a conversation with said, “I’m with Netflix. We’re here filming. We’re filming a story about missing persons.” He quickly called Jeannie and told her, “We’d like to share your daughter’s story.” Jeannie was initially nervous but knew her daughter’s case being featured in a documentary could give the case a lot of exposure.
Jeannie was surprised finding she “got more negativity then I could’ve imagined after the documentary.” She experienced “missing person stalkers” and was contacted by people “that thought they knew everything about the case”
Commenting on the implication that Netflix’s Murder Mountain documentary connecting Asha’s disappearance to the Alderpoint and the Humboldt County marijuana black market, MCSO’s Captain Van Patten said, “It is a pretty big stretch to think she could be at Alderpoint on Murder Mountain. From what we know about Asha, her lifestyle was not like the Murder Mountain lifestyle. That wasn’t necessarily a magnet for Asha.”
Jeannie tries to travel to California at least every two months hoping to one day find out what happened to her daughter. She distributes flyers, she speaks with strangers, she shares with anyone who will listen how much she longs for answers. Jeannie said “each time I visit the States, I come with hope that I will make contact with someone who is able to bring resolution to my daughter’s case. My trips are acts of love for my daughter. I look forward to connecting with Asha so she can reassure me that she is “OK.” Every bit of information is valuable and sheds light on the unknown.”
Asha Kreimer is 5’10’’ and weighs between 135-148 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Some of her distinguishable features include a noticeable gap between her teeth, a birthmark under her left breast, and a tattoo of a red triangle on her right wrist. She speaks with a pronounced Australian accent.
If you know anything about the whereabouts of Asha Kreimer, please contact Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 463-4611 referencing Case # 2015-23867.Asha’s mother is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to Asha’s return. Other reporting options include messaging the Help Find Asha Kreimer Facebook page or calling in a tip at (707)560-1543.
Sources
- Jamai Gayle, Phone Interview, October 16, 2019
- Jeannie Kreimer, Phone Interview, September 13, 2019
- Jillian Van Koutrik, Online Interview, September 15, 2019
- Mendocino County Sheriff Office’s Public Information Officer Captain Gregory Van Patton, Phone Interview, November 7, 2019
- “Timeline of Asha’s Disappearance”, Jamai Gayle
Most poignant arcticle about reality in a long time Mendo Fever.
I’ve talked to Asha’s mom while she hung posters at the ukiah co’op and it was absolutely heartbreaking and inspiring.
Where are the boots on the ground for our people in crisis!!?!
What TF was up with the crisis counselor who let her leave hospital?!
How creepy is it that a mentally impaired woman can barely walk down the street and not get an abduction attempt?!
How is it that there is no crisis clinics on the weekend?!?!?
How is it that our schools don’t teach kids to ask themselves “how do I feel?”
Shame on Netflix for using this to make money and spawn stalker psychos. Boycott that shit and just talk to your kids or neighbors!!
Childhood shit can be repressed and then come back like it was yesterday and we should all be taught in schools to recognize a crisis in ourselves, the same way we are taught to recognize that 1 plus 1 is 2.
Shame on that FB hospital & social worker. That could have been handled very differently. Mendocino county is so broken. I hate it here, our health care system sucks
Really good !! Unfortunately this shit continues!! Uneducated horrible response to mental illness crisis!!
I had a year of mental breaks where I needed to go to hospital but didn’t because I’ve been sent home with “anxiety” and was embarrassed. Which totally reinforced the self-nihilism and reassured me that I in fact didn’t matter.
Bless the neighbors for their awareness!