The Very Suspicious Disappearance of Caitlin Denison Feat. Her Sister 33:41

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Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. Happy to have you here again. If you're new, welcome. Today we are going to be talking about a case that you most likely have not heard of because it's gotten very minimal coverage. Cases like that can often be very hard to cover.

as just a YouTuber. You know, it's not like I am part of the media or an investigator. I can only work with what's available to me online, unless I can connect with a family and have them help me tell their story. So today's video is going to be another family involved video. Again, I just like to say in the beginning of these to please be sensitive when commenting, be thoughtful when commenting. I know that

It's the internet and people are going to do what they're going to do. But again, I just want to remind you that family members will be reading the comments if they choose to. So just be mindful in what you say in the comments, please. That's all I'm asking. So this is Caitlin Marie Dennison. She was born on August 7th, 1998.

She was known to be a loving, sweet girl who was always laughing, always finding the humor in anything. Her sister told me she was very happy and vibrant most of the time. Around strangers, she could kind of be a little more reserved, play things cool, but once you really got to know her, her really funny, outgoing personality,

just outrageous side came out. She was adventurous. She was fun. She had a real spirit for life. Everyone who talked to her just immediately loved her. Caitlin!

was my very best friend. I just got lucky enough to be related to her, so I was born having my soulmate already in the world, which was super cool. We were always just super goofy, super close with each other. I mean, it was always super-duper strong bond. She...

was my person. Kaitlyn and I were friends in high school more than we were in middle school, but Rachel and I were like best friends, so I knew Kaitlyn pretty well. Kaitlyn was an absolute light.

She was so goofy. She was very outgoing. She loved anybody she met. She would take the shirt off of her back for you. Sweetest thing alive. So friendly. And just every time she walked into a room, she just lighted up. Just like the most friendly, outgoing, charismatic person that I've

pretty much ever met in my life. Like she immediately made you feel like she was your best friend. Yeah, she was always amazing with never making you feel left out. And she always wanted to make sure that nobody ever felt alone or out of place.

And both of these girls are really young and really impressive for how young they are. They're really doing all the organizing and making efforts, following up with the police. They're doing everything for this case on their own. And I just think it's amazing. I mean, I feel like at their age, I don't know if I could do that. And

they are very strong, especially Rachel. She really lost her best friend and her sister through all of this and just wants answers and wants to know where she is. Yeah, having to kind of do this by ourselves, for me, it's been miserable. To this day, I have panic attacks about Caitlin, nightmares, like it's traumatizing. And it unfortunately, uh,

And as time goes on, it doesn't get any easier. You kind of just learn how to cope, I guess. I know how difficult it is for Rachel and her family. And so, like, I've tried to kind of step up and take over that, like, burden of, like, promoting everything and getting in contact with people and, like, talking to people who message us. Just trying really hard to share her story.

so that her family doesn't have to bear the burden of doing so. Now, growing up, Rachel and Caitlin did not always have the easiest childhood. And regarding the detail about what exactly they went through, they just want to, you know, keep their privacy when it comes to that. And I totally understand. But they did tell me that no matter what, the two of them were always there for each other. Rachel remembers feeling like it was them against the world. Their dad worked a lot and their mother worked.

struggled with alcoholism. So the girls were often left to fend for themselves. And there are actually three children in their family. They also had a younger sibling named Nimbus. So Rachel is the middle child and Caitlin was the oldest. And she definitely saw herself as a protector to her younger siblings. However, Rachel still says that she was kind of the mama bear of the house as the middle child.

Rachel and Caitlin are also very close in age. They're only 13 months apart. And oftentimes people would look at them kind of like twins and they would sometimes act like twins. They even made up their own secret language and would speak to each other in it. They went to high school at the same time, had a lot of the same friends, had a lot of the same classes and teachers, and they were definitely each other's friends.

biggest supporters and the most consistent person in each other's lives. And from the time they were little kids, they were always partners in crime, as she told me.

Whether that was just trying to find their Christmas presents early and sneaking a peek. They would do things like shave their Barbie's heads and flush them down the toilet to play Barbie Extreme, which totally reminds me of me and my little sister. We would always do weird shit like that. And as they grew up and became teenagers, Caitlin really helped Rachel come more out of her shell and she really came into herself. And as they got older, they only continued to become more and more alike.

After high school ended, they were just as close and they would talk every single day. Like not a day would go by without them checking in on each other, even if they were fighting. Their fights were always very short. If they ever did have any type of argument, they would resolve it very quickly and move on.

pretty fast. They would always call each other if they needed something. Rachel said that Caitlin would call her first for anything, even if she had like a stomach ache. And this was fine with Rachel. She loved being there for her sister and she felt like

She was there for her as well, and she described their relationship as interdependent. Rachel would take Caitlin to her doctor's appointments. They would go grocery shopping together. So unfortunately, the day of Caitlin's disappearance leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions. So I'm going to tell you what we do know.

In 2017, Caitlin was living in Reno, Nevada. She ended up meeting a man who was living in Midland, Texas. She knew him for about six months, but her friends and family didn't even know his name. In January of 2018, January 9th, Rachel gets in kind of unusual texts from Caitlin at two in the morning.

She texted me that she had just gone to the friend's house that I was staying with at the time. She had some of her stuff there. She came by and took some of her clothes and her makeup, but Rachel ended up missing her because she was over at her boyfriend's house at the time. And then Caitlin told Rachel that she was going to Texas. Caitlin...

ended up traveling to Texas and this would have been the like Midland Odessa area and then she ended up sending me her location because I had asked her to just in case anything were to happen which I'm so thankful I did

Then she told her she would call her the next afternoon at 2 p.m. and she told her to make sure she picked up. Caitlin also asked Rachel not to tell anyone that she was going to Texas. She didn't want anyone in their family to know. She didn't want the family that they were staying with to know. And so, of course, Rachel was ready for the call the next day.

but it never came. She had to work that day, so she texted Caitlin on her lunch break and told her she was available now if she could possibly call her then, but she did not hear back from her. Then the following day, January 10th, Rachel gets a few messages from Caitlin telling her that she would be able to talk that day at 12:30. It turns out that Caitlin had flown to Texas with this guy that she had met six months earlier who lives in Midland,

and no one in Caitlin's family knew this guy's name. And Caitlin stepped away from this man when she made the call. She made it from a store to talk to Rachel.

And obviously that's a big red flag. Rachel tried to get more information out of her, but Caitlin wouldn't say much, but Rachel did end up convincing her to send her her location. Their call was cut short because apparently this man started approaching Caitlin and she got scared and hung up. So the last time that I talked to Caitlin was January 10th, 2018. Uh,

She had called me from the Walmart by using their Wi-Fi because before she had left, I was paying her a phone bill on those little, like, pay-and-go cards. So just told me how scared she was that she was in Texas. She didn't mention the man's name.

After hanging up, Caitlin did send her location to Rachel, and she was at a Walmart in Midland. Right away to Rachel, she knew that the

minimal information Caitlin was giving her was alarming. I mean, why was she holding back? Why didn't she want her to know certain things? She felt like she could be in danger. She felt like Caitlin was scared and wanted to come home. Then she told Rachel that this man had been touching her inappropriately and she ended up having to pull a knife on him. She said, "'He is mad that I won't let him lay a hand on me. This guy makes me a little scared for my life.'"

And then she kind of went a little bit into detail about how she had to defend herself. So at that point, Rachel was really worried. And the next day, she couldn't get a hold of Caitlin. So she decided it was time to go to the police. I had reported Caitlin missing on January 12th of 2018. My dad and I went to the police station.

In Reno, and we filed a report for her missing person. At the time that she went missing, Caitlin was only 19 years old. So the police ended up opening an investigation, and as soon as they did, a witness ended up reporting that Caitlin was seen with a truck driver in Midland, Texas. And the police actually tracked this guy down and interviewed him and his mother.

At the time of her disappearance, Caitlin was trying to find work as an exotic dancer. Please, people, don't judge her. I mean, I can just see the sex work shame comments now.

Keep them to yourself. No one wants to hear it. But this man ended up telling the police that Caitlin was having trouble finding a job in Reno because she had several self-harm scars and she was having trouble getting hired by a club. So she was hoping that maybe she could find work in Texas, according to this guy. And I'm saying this guy because we still...

And he claimed that while he was asleep one night, Caitlin just quietly got up, packed up all her things, and left. He said she didn't say a word, and he had never heard from her since, and he said he had no idea where she could possibly be. They also found out that when Caitlin flew from Reno to Texas, she didn't have her ID. And he said she didn't have her ID.

Which, I didn't know this, but I guess sometimes that does happen. If the person does not appear to be a flight risk, they'll let them fly without an ID. Did not know that. The flight also had a layover in either Las Vegas or Phoenix. It's not clear which one. But investigators, for some reason, say they have not been able to check airport surveillance footage. And this is really unbelievable to hear.

Caitlin's friends and family to this day don't even know what her flight number was or even what airline she flew. They have such limited information. They've been given literally no answers. It's unbelievable. A few months after she was reported missing, a woman contacted police saying that she had given Caitlin a ride to her boyfriend's place of work.

Investigators ended up saying that this was a verified sighting of Caitlin. From the beginning, Rachel says her and her family have felt like they've been really left in the dark by investigators. When her sister first went missing, she felt totally confused and shocked.

and tried everything she could to do something to help, especially when she wasn't getting any answers and nothing to work with. So she started posting on social media. They've posted a lot to Twitter. They've tried to get as many eyes on her case as possible. They've tried to get pictures of Caitlyn out there, pictures of her tattoos out there. But beyond that, she wasn't sure what she could do. Now, there is one big detail here that should be mentioned.

And we talked with Rachel about whether or not to talk about this, and she felt like we should. Rachel says that when she went missing, there's a chance she could have been pregnant. She said that she knows for sure that she was pregnant at some point. My boyfriend and I at the time, we were sitting in the In-N-Out drive-thru line with Caitlin, and we were all kind of jamming out to the radio. And then we all got kind of quiet, and Caitlin goes...

have you guys ever tried frosting and mustard? Pretty tangy. And my boyfriend and I, at the time, like we just turned around and we were like, no, like why would you do that? And she's like, I don't know. It just sounded really good. And I was like, you're pregnant. And she's all, no, I'm not. You're an idiot. I'm not pregnant. I'm like, nobody does that. If you do, I'm sorry. But like nobody that I know does that. Um,

I think it was a few days after that, maybe even the day after she took a test and lo and behold, I was right. And at the time, Caitlin wasn't sure what to do. She was weighing all of her options, whether she wanted to go forward with the pregnancy and possibly do adoption or

And Rachel isn't sure what Caitlin's final decision was. But it is possible that she wasn't pregnant anymore because at the time that she went missing, Caitlin was going through a really hard time mentally and she was drinking a lot. She had struggled with depression on and off for a very long time and she started to self-harm again. So police ended up trying to talk to this truck driver, this unnamed guy in Midland, Texas. And

And when they went to his house to speak with him again, he was gone. And there's a big question mark here because the police will not even release the case file to Rachel or her family. They have given them absolutely nothing, no answers, nothing to work with.

But as far as Rachel knows, they simply kind of crossed him off the list and didn't follow up beyond that once he wasn't able to be located at his address. Her family's been incredibly frustrated that they haven't followed up. They feel like they have refused to investigate and they haven't even given them this guy's name, which I just don't understand. Rachel and Emily really feel that because of...

Caitlin's career choice, you know, being a stripper and her living a more high risk lifestyle, as you could say, that the media haven't given her attention, the public hasn't given her attention, and the police haven't given her the attention that she deserves. I think that was like the biggest setback once people found out that she was a dancer and that

that she would go out, that all of a sudden she was this bad person. You know, she wasn't beautiful anymore. She didn't seem nice anymore. You know, once that came to light, that became the most important part as to why she shouldn't be found, why she deserved to go missing. Rachel's had to deal with people saying horrific things about her sister online. And that's part of the internet. And we talked about that. She's well aware of that and says she...

you know, she's ready for it. She's feels strong. But again, I always get nervous bringing these types of cases to my channel because it's YouTube and there's a lot of people here with a lot of opinions and sometimes people just have zero empathy. People would just say nasty things and that's, that sucks that that all of a sudden became the biggest concern. Yeah. And there's like such a negative view on,

So again, I appreciate everyone that leaves kind comments for these families because that's what they need most is feeling support, especially when they are in a situation where they're not able to get help.

Having gotten that from the media, the police or the public really at all, it'd be awesome if we can really lift these girls up who have tried so hard to do everything in their power to get Caitlyn's name out there. She's learned that even the negative comments help. I mean, at least they're watching. It helps boost the post, which is definitely true. It definitely helps the algorithm no matter what you do with a video. And she just can't understand people who don't have any sympathy for Caitlyn that can't understand that they grew up

any tough situation and she was very depressed. I mean, she was hurting. She was in a dark place and she needed help. When things got really hard for Rachel and almost too overwhelming for her to handle, that's when Emily, her friend, really stepped in and has been helping to get Caitlin's story out there.

Emily has helped Rachel sift through mountains of information, trying to figure out as much as they can without the case file. They try to follow any possible leads or find anything that could be relevant to the case. But the police investigation went pretty much nowhere, and the media really didn't cover Caitlin's case much from the beginning.

there was one point where they did talk about her a bit because there was this incident that happened in August of 2018. I remember when this happened actually and seeing this go viral on Twitter. It's this really eerie footage from a ring doorbell camera that was released to the public and it showed a woman wearing a t-shirt and arm restraints. It's

very scary she was clearly panicked had a look of desperation in her eyes and she was just ringing doorbells in this neighborhood in montgomery county texas in the middle of the night now this woman had the same build and bone structure as caitlyn here's a side by side

so when rachel first watched the footage she actually thought it could be her sister but the police ended up receiving calls from multiple people who thought the woman in the footage could be their loved one as well so during this time caitlyn's case did get a little bit of coverage

until the person was identified and it was not caitlyn the woman in the footage actually had been held hostage by her boyfriend 49 year old dennis collins super scary situation she managed to escape him and shortly after this guy shot himself in the chest with a handgun and he ended up identifying her in the doorbell footage as his girlfriend in his suicide note

Luckily, that situation turned out okay. The woman is safe now and Dennis is dead. Because she is a victim of sexual assault, her identity has not been released. Also around this time, and this is very unfortunate to have to report things like this, but someone started posing as Caitlin Dennison on TikTok.

This person was just trolling basically, going around to other videos commenting that Caitlyn wasn't dead and Rachel and Emily reported the account and got it taken down. But things like this are just so emotionally exhausting to deal with. And when you feel like you're not getting any help and no information, you just feel stuck. Then Rachel told me that

her sister's case did get some attention again when a TikTok creator covered her case. She actually made a two-part series on it and this would seem like a good thing, you know, awareness is always really helpful for families. But unfortunately, they ended up being really disappointed with this because the creator ended up trying to make a connection between Caitlyn's disappearance and

and the murder of another family member of theirs Rachel's cousin who was murdered 10 years earlier her name was Brianna Dennison she was a 19 year old college student studying psychology at the University of Nevada on January 20 2008 she went with a friend to a party at the Sands Regency in Reno and instead of going home that night she decided to stay at a friend's house near the University when her friend woke up the next morning she found Brianna's bed

empty and blood on her pillow and Brianna was gone. She called police and there was a massive search for Brianna. Her case ended up being investigated as a kidnapping, but unfortunately on February 15th, 2008, her family was devastated to find out that her body was found hidden under some tree limbs in South Reno. An autopsy confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

The case was then a murder investigation and the police made it a top priority. That November, investigators received an anonymous tip that a man named James Bila may have been involved in Brianna's murder. So he was brought in for questioning but refused to provide a DNA sample. But luckily, his girlfriend at the time had no problem providing the police with his DNA. And of course, it was a match. And it turns out that he had...

abducted brianna right out of her bed sexually assaulted her and then killed her and dumped her body so this family has already been through a ton of trauma and going back to that tick tock

she had speculated that maybe the two cases have something to do with each other because obviously it's rare for a family to have two murders, two separate murders in their family. So people have tried to say that they're connected and have come up with their own bizarre theories about how this would make sense, which it just doesn't make any sense at all, no matter how you slice it. So Rachel just really wants to use this video to

put a rest to those rumors. Kaitlyn and Brianna's case is not in relation to each other at all. It just happened to be that they went missing 10 years apart, pretty much to the day. But, you know, Brianna's murderer, he's in jail. And, you know, none of his family had a vengeance on our family. Like, it was never like that. Because somebody, I can't remember who they had created this entire...

conspiracy theory and it took off, especially on Twitter. It had like 10,000 plus retweets about it. And everybody believed the conspiracy theory, you know, like even some people that I hadn't talked to in years, they're like, oh, well, what about the possibility of this? Like, what if his family was stalking your family and to get revenge? Like, it's not like that. It's just an awful coincidence.

It's not helpful to them. It's hurtful. It distracts from Caitlyn's case. And at the end of the day, her cousin Brianna was brutally murdered by a man who now sits on death row. So they got justice for her and they want to now focus on getting justice for Caitlyn. So they feel that bringing up Brianna's case every time Caitlyn is talked about

is kind of distracting people from Caitlin's story because the way both of those cases were handled was completely different. So to this day, Rachel is still trying to get answers from police about her sister's case. She wants to know what happened to some of Caitlin's things like her clothes, the bag that she always carried with her and her phone. She wants to know who this guy was that Caitlin was staying with.

that police have confirmed she was staying with. And she obviously wants to know if the police know where he is now. They believe that he should at the very least be considered a person of interest in her case since he was the last one to see her. Also, Caitlin was saying she was afraid of him. I mean, remember that phone call? Clearly she was worried about her safety. She wants them to push harder to find answers. She feels at this point,

They've been kind of blown off. And she did tell me that she thinks that's partly due to her age, that she hasn't been taken seriously or because of Caitlin's background, that they aren't taking Caitlin seriously as a person, as a human, that she was. It's so unfair that they won't even give her the case file. She's tried extremely hard to get it and they just won't give it to her.

Oftentimes, they will even release a redacted version to families, but the Denisons haven't even gotten that. The first detective on the case in Reno, the original person, was the only one who really seemed to put any energy into it. And they were really happy with her because she had actually been part of the team that helped get justice for Brianna's murder. The detective on Brianna's case was...

was also who had taken over Caitlin's case while it was in Reno's jurisdiction. She was very responsive and diligent on what happened, the details of Caitlin, what I knew, what I didn't know, who she had been around. So it was very proactive while it was in Reno, for sure. Once Texas PD took over, I

I was left a little bit in the dark. I don't know when they took over Caitlin's case. I didn't know that they had taken over the case until probably maybe a couple months later.

But I guess that's how it changed in the sense that I was kind of not as informed as I was when it was in Reno. And I mean, obviously, I'm not in Texas, so I can't, you know, just walk down to the station and ask them what's going on. It's a little bit more difficult in that sense. Rachel is...

never contacted by detectives at this point. The case has been handed off to new people and even when someone new is brought in on the case, they don't even connect with her, touch base with her.

Nothing. They never even contact their family to introduce themselves. She has always had to be the one to call, to reach out, to pry for answers and figure out what is going on. Online rumors, speculation, and trolls have just been a constant issue for them. People just shaming their family, shaming Caitlyn. And that's really hard to go through. I mean, they definitely have built up a tough skin, but...

It gets to you. People also started calling police as a way to troll and give false information. And that's obviously been very frustrating to deal with as well. People are constantly sending them pictures of people that they think look like Caitlyn. And oftentimes Rachel and Emily say that these sightings look nothing like Caitlyn. And it just sucks.

hurts them all over again, but they understand people are just trying to help and they want that, but it's, it's such a tough situation. In 2020, Rachel found out that the case ended up getting taken over by a new Texas Ranger named Jeremy Cater, who is young and enthusiastic. So she's really hopeful that maybe they'll start to see some real movement in the case. But for now, Rachel and Emily are fighting as hard as they can to raise awareness and keep

Caitlin's name out there. They have started a GoFundMe because they are trying to hire a private investigator. I am going to go ahead and meet their goal of $5,000 to start them off. And if you would like to help her family to get that private investigator, you can always make a donation to the GoFundMe as well. And we also were thinking to use the GoFundMe to get plane tickets to fly down to Texas and see if we can speak with

the detective in person. - We would like to get like a billboard to put her face out there. - Now, like I said earlier, the rest of the family isn't really involved in the case.

And these two girls, Rachel and Emily, have been doing this all on their own. Rachel is only 22 years old. It's very impressive what she's been able to do and handle considering all the trauma that she's been through. She went from talking to her sister every day, having her as her best friend to never seeing her again and not having any answers as to where she is. That's just so much to take on at a young age. I mean, I really can't imagine. The last time

that I was updated about Caitlin's case from Texas PD was probably closer to earlier this year. You know, they couldn't tell me much just because it is still an open investigation, even though it is a cold case. So what I am telling everybody now is

Her family believes that Caitlin deserves more than to be put on a back burner. Like I said, she feels that maybe the case isn't being taken as seriously because she herself is so young that maybe investigators aren't taking her seriously enough. She wants to fight for a seat at the table. She wants to be a voice for Caitlin. And I'm hoping if this video makes it to the right people that

they can make that happen. I mean, that's the least you can do is listen to her, sit with her, give them the updates and the information that they deserve. Rachel and Emily have continued to post on social media using the hashtags #bringkaitlynhome and #getkaitlynhome. So if you would like to share about the case, it's always helpful and using those hashtags kind of connects everything back together.

Today, Caitlin would be 23 years old. She's 5'4" with blue eyes and when she went missing, she weighed about 130 pounds. She did like to change up her hair quite a bit, but blonde was really her go-to color. However, she is a natural brunette. When she disappeared, her hair was short but growing out and buzzed on the sides. She also has self-harm scars on her arms and her legs.

she has multiple piercings gauges in both of her ears and second piercings in her ears as well and both nostrils her tongue her bottom lip and she had a philtrum piercing which is also known as the medusa piercing which is right above her lip

below the cartilage that separates the nostrils. She also has a beauty mark on her lower left lip, multiple tattoos including the eye of Horus on the inside of her wrist, Libra scales on her right forearm, a small alien head and a scripted letter M on her left ring finger, and a Leo zodiac sign on her right middle finger. She was last seen wearing a black shirt,

leggings with kind of braiding down the side, black leggings and furry boots. Oh, and she also had a fur vest. So if any of you happen to have any information that could lead to answers in this case, please get that information to the right people. Call the Texas Department of Public Safety or DPS at

Or you can call the Midland County Sheriff's Office at... Rachel has also asked my viewers...

who I know so many of you are so awesome and active true crime viewers who are willing to help in any way. So she was hoping that as many of you as possible could contact the police to respectfully request their cooperation in Caitlin's investigation, to move her case up in their priority list, and to release her case file to her family. I will leave instructions in the description box on how to do that. Oh.

All we ask is that we make her case viral. Pretty much just share as much as you can, donate what you can, and if you can't donate, just share the link. She was one of the very best things in my life. She was my very best friend. She always was working her butt off.

But that is really all I have on this case. I wish there was more answers or information about this guy. I can't believe they don't even have his name. That's insane to me.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.