Katharina Buczek
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.
