Between the hours of 15:00 and 19:00 on either days falling between Tuesday, October 27, and Friday, October 30 a series of unexplained events ultimately led to the disappearance employees at a creative agency, NMCO Media, located on Lohman Avenue of Las Cruces, NM.
Dana Apodaca, Ralph Diaz, Christina Ballew and her dog Kahlo were discovered to be missing, with their last known whereabouts being at the NMCO Studio location. Lucky Gonzales, NMCO Co-Founder, became concerned after the alarm was tripped and security footage showed flashing lights, while the dog was heard barking excessively in the background. Gonzales reported broken glass, vandalized electricity, and no contact from any of NMCO’s employees. Upon further investigation, it appears other employees working remotely including Carlos Arreola, Kelsey Gentile, and Dawn Franco also disappeared at unknown times prior to the discovery at the scene.
The investigation is ongoing, but so far there there is no suspected foul play or leads on any suspects or possible locations of the missing persons. In fact, investigators have no evidence to suspect any human involvement.
Below is a summary of the missing victims and evidence discovered through found footage, social media and cell phone data leading up to their disappearances.
Victim: Tina Ballew, 36, female, Creative Director
Evidence: mysterious visitor
After investigating all the missing victims residences agents talked with two neighbors of Ballew, who wish to remain anonymous. The neighbors made a statement that for at least 4 nights in a row Ballew’s dog was barking every evening at the same hour. At the residence of the victim in question forensics found a strange print, larger than a human hand, but sharing similar features on the exterior of the victims’s window. It also appears that before her disappearance Ballew shared a video of her dog being “disturbed” at her bedroom window. Upon further analysis of the footage, and unknown to Ballew, it appears that two glowing eyes are peering through her window from outside of her residence.
Victim: Ralph Diaz, 30, male, Video Specialist
Evidence: mechanical disturbance
Days before his disappearance Diaz experienced foreign radio transmissions and interference within his vehicle. The victim shared the incident via Instagram story. Evidence suggests the vehicle continued to pick up the unidentified transmission in the following days after the post. His vehicle was later recovered at the Rio Grande. It is unclear if Diaz abandoned at the river. Upon further investigation damage underneath the vehicle indicates a drop from several feet high. The battery in the vehicle was dead upon investigation. The investigation at Diaz’s residence revealed other mechanical devices seemed to have been destroyed by blunt force from, most likely, the baseball bat found in the residence.
Victim: Kelsey Gentile, 25, female, Web Developer
Evidence: mysterious php
By gaining access to NMCO theft surveillance and the computer systems at NMCO we discovered that Gentile had encountered strange coding from an unidentified IP address through an invasive server connection. After posting her findings on Facebook, one of her friends had suggested to “Ctrl+ alt+delete?” Our forensics team found the same code written all over Gentile’s wall in what appears to be made of an invisible substance not identified, known or native to this Earth. Experts have not been able to recognize or interpret the coded symbols.
Victim: Dana Apodaca, 29, female, Senior Graphic Designer
Evidence: interrupted dreams
The victim posted a sketch on social media from the NMCO studio captioned: “I keep waking up at exactly 3 AM almost every night, after having the same awful reoccurring dream with this scary dark figure in it. Cross your fingers and hope I have a good night’s sleep tonight…” Her personal network seemed to be concerned due to the distressing figure with one person commenting “Cucuy A** Bitch.” Based on access to NMCO surveillance during studio hours the victim suggested she believed this to be a ‘creature or alien’. Upon searching the NMCO Media studio for evidence we obtained the sketch.
Victim: Carlos Arreola, 25, male, Animation and Visual Effects Specialist Evidence: unusual sightings
Upon investigating the victims cell phone and records Arreola had captured an unidentified aircraft outside the NMCO studio. The victim, like Apodaca, also suggested he believed the aircraft to be related to the extraterrestrial.
Victim: Dawn Franco, 24, female, Studio Manager
Evidence: potential stalker
The victim posted a selfie on social media on a hike out in the desert, posted and captioned, “Productive day at work, now for some me time.” Unknown to the victim is an ominous figure in the background that was discovered by a viewer on her feed. The user captioned “Look behind you!” The strange silhouette resembles the sketch drafted by Apodaca and also appears to mimic the glowing eyes found in Ballew’s footage. Agents are unsure how to interpret this evidence.
Victim: Kahlo, 6, Human Resources
Evidence: collar
The 60 pound, white-spotted and grey pitbull’s collar was discovered outside the studio, at the scene where Diaz, Apodaca, Ballew, and the canine were last documented. Forensics discovered the same print from Ballew’s window on the canine’s collar.
Based on past missing person cases, unexplainable in nature, with similar evidence, this case will remain open and the investigation will continue until more discoveries can tie loose ends. For the present status the disappearances and unexplained developments in relation to NMCO Media and its employees will remain a cold case. To see all the collected evidence click here.
As of November 2, 2020 all NMCO employees returned to the NMCO studio for business as usual with no recollection or memory of the previous week.
CASE CLOSED
