Christine Lindsey Walters was 23 when she vanished into thin air in November 2008. She was a student at the University of Wisconsin and she was studying botany and ethnobotany, which is the scientific study of the relationship between people and plants. Christine was also into yoga and Pilates and she had been teaching classes.
In summer of 2008, she decided to take a vacation from Deerfield, Wisconsin to Portland, Oregon. She was originally scheduled to return to Wisconsin and to resume her studies in the fall, but she decided to extend her stay and defer her studies.
She traveled to Eureka, California to visit some friends. She became very interested in spirituality, the environment and alternative lifestyle choices.
During her vacation, she had remained in constant contact with her family but this lessened after she arrived in California. She wasn’t working steadily and often asked her parents for money.
According to the CharleyProject.org, on the morning of November 12, 2008, she was found standing on the doorstep of a rural home outside of Arcata, a town near Eureka. She was confused, naked and covered with briar scratches. The homeowner called the police, who took Walters to St. Joseph’s Hospital for treatment. She appeared frightened and said someone was after her, but she wouldn’t say exactly what had happened to her.
Confused and frightened, Christine had expressed to authorities and her family, she was in fear of someone who was following her, stating repeatedly, “They are going to find me wherever I go.”
Once released from the hospital, police took Christine to a motel where she was to make arrangements to fly home to Wisconsin to her family. Her father wired $1000.00 to her account and that money has never been touched. Her last known movements put her at a copy center in Eureka on November 14, 2008. She was there to pick up documents her mother had faxed so she could replace her lost identification and immediately travel home. Video surveillance at the copy center indicates Christine looked paranoid while there, clutching her faxed documents close to her body as she left. She left the copy center and vanished into thin air.
Christine was reported missing on November 17, 2008 after she failed to contact her parents and return home to Deerfield. A search was launched and her backpack was found at Green Life Evolution Center in Arcata, CA. It contained her money and identification that she had lost. It is believed Christine would often leave her backpack at the spiritual center while she walked in the Arcata Community Forest.
A private investigator hired by Walters’s parents found out she was in a “tea ceremony” before she was found and taken to the hospital. These ceremonies are illegal in the United States. The participants take ayahuasca, a drink containing two drugs: harmine, which is legal in the United States, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is considered a controlled substance.
Ingesting ayahuasca causes vomiting, diarrhea and hallucinations that can last up to ten hours. It has been known to cause adverse reactions, including episodes of depression or mania, in some people who are predisposed to mental illness. It’s unclear whether the tea ceremony is related to Walters’s later disappearance.
So, what happened to Christine? Is she still out there somewhere, living off the grid in an alternative lifestyle? Could she have had a mental break and be living amongst the homeless? Or did she succumb to the elements and her remains have not been found?
Her family maintain a Facebook site for her but there have been no confirmed sightings of her since her.
Distinguishing Characteristics
Caucasian female. Blonde/red hair, blue eyes. Walters does not wear makeup. Her left nostril is pierced and her ears are pierced multiple times. She has a small black butterfly tattooed on her lower front hip and a large tattoo of a purple and green iris flower on the nape of her neck. She may use the names Airy Meadow, Airystar, Meadow and/or Star.