In 1993, This 22-Year-Old Woman From California Vanished After Suffering A Psychotic Break
After Kristi Krebs of Fort Bragg, California, graduated high school in 1989, she began working full-time at a local restaurant. Eventually, though, the upbeat and cheerful teen reportedly became infatuated with a married man.
Kristi’s obsession ultimately resulted in fantasies. And on April 30, 1990, she drove around for hours thinking about marrying the man before getting lost on a country road.
The teen’s car wound up getting stuck in the mud before bursting into flames. Then, after the vehicle was discovered– with a completely destroyed interior– Kristi was nowhere to be found.
The following morning, a few railroad workers did spot a young disoriented woman walking down the tracks. One of the workers also identified the young woman as Kristi and phoned her parents– who soon realized that the car fire had caused their daughter to suffer a traumatic mental breakdown.
After Kristi was picked up by her father, Bob Krebs, everything appeared to be alright.
“Initially, we thought things were okay,” Bob recalled.
“But as we were driving back into town, the behavior we were getting from her was very bizarre– chanting and doing very weird things. And I looked at my wife and said, ‘We are not going home. We’re going to the hospital.”
According to Kristi’s mother, Susan Krebs, the hospital staff first believed the teen might have been on drugs. After testing Kristi, though, it was found there was nothing in her system.
So, for the following months, the teen was constantly in and out of the hospital– ultimately being diagnosed with a trauma-related psychotic break.
State of California Department of Justice – pictured above is Kristi
Once Kristi began receiving therapy and drug treatment, though, she started making rapid progress. Six months later, she was even released from the hospital, and her therapist recommended that she begin working part-time again.
As things started to look up, Bob could not have been more thrilled.
“I think it was suggested she work 20 hours a week to start with,” he explained.
“And she did incredibly well. And she was very proud of herself. She got herself a second job in a local fast-food restaurant.”
But Kristi soon began taking on a lot more responsibility– working long 10 to 12-hour days. As the years passed by, her parents also tried to express their concern about her rapid pace at work.
Kristi kept insisting that she was fine, though, until she tragically spiraled again and disappeared.
It all began on August 9, 1993, when Kristi left her job at Round Table Pizza in reportedly good spirits. But, the 22-year-old did not go straight home as usual.
Instead, Kristi drove around aimlessly before veering onto a dirt road east of Mendocino, California– located only seven miles from her previous car fire.
And yet again, in a remote area of the redwood forest, Kristi’s car got stuck in the mud. Upon discovery of the vehicle, authorities found small traces of blood in the front seat and on the dashboard.
The car radio had been ripped out, and there were also shredded identification papers and torn-up photographs scattered on the road.
Investigators were able to link the car, papers, and photographs back to the 22-year-old. But Kristi was never seen again after this incident– which was eerily similar to what happened just three years prior.
This led her father, Bob, to suspect his daughter had suffered a second psychotic break.
“I think that she probably had flashbacks. It was like reliving that nightmare. And all of that, I think, just overloaded all the circuits,” Bob said.
“In my mind, the last thing she did, she went through her wallet in total frustration– whether she’s looking at pictures of family and friends, she ripped them up and scattered them around,” he continued.
“Whether she was destroying her past and trying to get away from it, I really don’t know. I know that my daughter went through a really tough time out there for two or three hours.”
Investigators believed that Kristi changed into a gym outfit, one that she always carried, before abandoning her vehicle– since her work clothes were discovered drenched and neatly folded in the backseat of her car.
The following morning, August 10, 1993, authorities also launched a full-scale search. Unfortunately, though, no trace of Kristi was ever uncovered.
In the months after Kristi’s disappearance, however, there were numerous possible sightings reported in Texas, Salt Lake City, and California.
On June 30, 1994, one off-duty highway worker, Mike Case, claimed to have picked up a hitchhiker outside the town of Visalia, California, who resembled Kristi.
Mike recalled how he thought the hitchhiker might have been on drugs at first.
“But talking with her a little bit at the beginning, I knew that possibly she was in a world of her own,” he explained.
“I did happen to notice that there were two slash marks on her wrist. And I asked her directly, ‘Well, what happened there?’ And she said, ‘I had a breakdown.”
Mike did not know about the 22-year-old’s disappearance at the time, though, and ultimately dropped Kristi off near a Hanford, California, intersection.
Then, just one week later, he read about Kristi’s disappearance in a news article and reached out to her parents.
Bob and Susan Krebs immediately sent Mike photographs of their daughter. And after he reviewed them, Mike claimed to be certain he had encountered Kristi.
“I went through several of the pictures, and my personal feeling was that this was the girl I picked up on the freeway. I am positive that it is her. I’m positive,” he said.
One of the most credible tips, though, came from a woman named Alicia Larson, who recalled picking up a young hitchhiker between Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, on August 11, 1993– just two days after Kristi’s disappearance.
Alicia ultimately saw a missing person’s flyer nearly one year after the 22-year-old’s disappearance and reached out to Bob and Susan Krebs.
She was reportedly able to describe specific details about Kristi’s clothing that were never released to the public. And even though Bob and Susan were hesitant to believe her at first, the descriptions Alicia shared about Kristi’s gym clothes were distinctive.
“I brought up reading about the pink shorts on the flyer. I told her the girl was wearing a t-shirt that had an emblem on it that matched the pink exactly, and there were two other colors on the shirt– I thought it was neon blue and neon yellow,” Alicia explained.
“That’s when her mom said it was actually a kind of chartreuse color, and I said yes, it was chartreuse.”
Alicia also detailed how she dropped the young hitchhiker off in Park City, Utah, at a McDonald’s and recalled how the woman said, “Burker King is better.”
According to Bob and Susan, this detail was telling– since their daughter also worked at Burker King in Fort Bragg prior to her disappearance.
Alicia’s details about Kristi surpassed clothing and Burger King, though. In fact, in 1994, she actually visited the Krebs’ home and shared a ton of other little details from her half-hour ride with the hitchhiker.
Apparently, everything from the way the hitchhiker smiled to sometimes licked her teeth and called herself “Kris” made Bob and Susan believe Alicia had really picked up their daughter.
“Alicia told us about conversations and mannerisms that were completely credible, that anyone who knew Kristi would recognize,” Susan detailed.
“This is the only positive sighting we have had of Kristi, but we know she hitchhiked out of Fort Bragg and made it to Salt lake City in a very happy, though delusional, state. She felt she couldn’t come home because her family would be in danger.”
And while Kristi has still never returned home, this sighting has provided Bob and Susan with a strong hope that their daughter is still alive.
“I believe that Kristi is out there somewhere and that she’s alive because Kristi is a survivor. She has a lot of strength. She’s very friendly, and I believe that she would not be a loner, that she would hook up with someone,” Susan said.
At the time of her disappearance, Kristi was five foot two, weighed 140 pounds, and had brown hair and blue eyes. She has a deformed right thumb– with a thick knuckle and tip that curves inward.
Kristi also has pierced ears and several large moles on the right side of her neck and goes by the nickname of “Kris.”
If you have any information regarding her disappearance or whereabouts, you are urged to contact the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707) 961-2820.
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