The Unsolved Disappearance of Marissa Carmichael

When Marissa Carmichael was a teenager growing up in North Carolina, it was her house that everyone gathered at.

Marissa loved having friends over and was a social butterfly. She was well-liked by her peers. Marissa was not just friendly and kind, but she was also fun, and people enjoyed being around her.

As Marissa grew up, she would go on to have five children by the age of 25. She would be raising these children on her own, as a single mother, but she was up for the challenge. Despite the hurdles, Marissa loved her kids and wanted to do her best.

But Marissa was still only 25 years old and wanted to go out and have fun sometimes as well.

On January 13, 2024, Marissa decided to go out with a friend to a nightclub in Greensboro, about 20 minutes from her High Point, North Carolina home.

Marissa’s friend went home earlier than Marissa, and Marissa caught a ride from a male friend to a local gas station. It was after 3:00 in the morning.

From there, she called 911 to tell authorities that she was lost. Someone had dropped her off and driven off with her phone, and she had no way home. It was a bizarre call, and the dispatcher was trying to understand.

When authorities showed up, a full 40 minutes later, Marissa was nowhere to be found.

The next day, Marissa’s parents received some odd phone calls from Marissa and an unknown man. But, after getting a fake address from the caller to pick up Marissa, they realized they couldn’t find Marissa anywhere, and someone was lying to them.

Marissa had vanished, and authorities were notified.

The events that took place that night have become a mystery that no one has been able to solve.

Where is Marissa Carmichael?

Those closest to Marissa, her friends and family, will all describe her as a beautiful girl who loves to be around people.

She was always social, and it was her house as a teenager that everyone would gather at.

Marissa was friendly and fun from childhood on. She grew up in North Carolina, being raised by her parents, and had one younger sister, Emma.

As a young adult, Marissa would become a mom to five children. It isn’t clear about the circumstances surrounding the father- or fathers- but Marissa was a dedicated mom.

In 2024, she and her children were living at her parents’ home in High Point, North Carolina, while Marissa worked at a local Waffle House restaurant.

Life wasn’t perfect, but Marissa was trying her best, and her close-knit family was there for her.

THE DISAPPEARANCE.

January 13, 2024, was a cold Saturday in Greensboro, North Carolina. One of Marissa’s girlfriends had been staying at Marissa’s family’s house while she was down on her luck.

Marissa’s parents wanted to help her out and decided to let her stay with them until she could get on her feet.

This girlfriend, who has been unnamed publicly, and Marissa decided to go out to a club that night in Greensboro, North Carolina. The club was the One17 Sofa Bar and Lounge.

They met up with some people at the club and ended up leaving at some point to go to a nearby Airbnb where some of them were staying. They wanted to keep ‘partying’.

At that point, Marissa’s friend decided to go home.

Later on, a man from the party drove Marissa to a nearby Exxon gas station and dropped her off.

Marissa called 911 from a borrowed phone in a panic because this man had driven off with her phone and left her at the gas station.

The 911 call came in at 3:40 a.m. An officer showed up at 4:19 a.m, a full 39 minutes later.

When he arrived, Marissa was not there. Since Marissa didn’t seem too distressed in her 911 call, the officer initially just figured she got a ride home.

He left the scene after a few minutes, without searching for Marissa in any way.

That Sunday, January 14, 2024, Marissa’s mom woke up to a couple of missed calls from an odd number. It had been Marissa trying to reach her mom. The calls came in around 5:08 a.m.

Marissa’s dad would say that he also received a call from Marissa around that same time, and since he was awake, he answered.

It was Marrisa, using a friend’s phone and asking to speak to her girlfriend, the one who had been living with them. Her dad went upstairs and found the friend there in bed, sleeping. He handed her the phone.

He heard the friend say that she didn’t know the person who had her phone. That was the extent of the call.

It seemed Marissa was trying to locate her missing phone that had been left in the car of the man who had taken her to the gas station.

Her dad didn’t think much of it until Marissa’s mom woke up and they started talking about it. It did seem weird, but they were certain there had to be an explanation.

That afternoon, her parents learned that Marissa had not shown up for her shift at Waffle House. Now they were worried.

They tried to call back that mysterious number Marissa had called from earlier, but a man answered. He told them Marissa was asleep. They asked him for the address so they could come pick her up.

He gave them an address, and they ended the call. Her parents jumped into the car and went off to pick up their daughter.

Their hearts sank when they arrived at the address. It was a Sheetz Gas Station, and there was no sign of Marrisa there.

Calls to the mysterious phone were no longer being answered.

Marissa Carmichael had disappeared.

THE SEARCH AND INVESTIGATION.

When Marissa’s family contacted law enforcement to report her as missing, they were not taken very seriously. Marissa was an adult, and hadn’t been missing that long, and seeing as they had heard from Marissa in those early morning hours and knew she didn’t have her phone, arthritis thought she just hadn’t found a way to get in touch yet.

But surely she would.

However, her parents knew something was wrong. This was not only very out of character for Marissa, but they also felt her friend- the one living with them- was acting odd.

She hadn’t really wanted to talk to them about the night before, the night Marissa and she went out, and then she left the home.

Marissa’s parents had a weird, sickening feeling. And let’s face it, you can’t ever ignore a mother’s intuition.

But they were at a standstill. Marissa’s friend had left their home, and she didn’t come back.

Her parents didn’t know the other people who were with them that night and didn’t know who to reach out to.

It was the middle of the week, a few days after they reported their daughter missing, that authorities finally began investigating and taking them seriously.

It was then that the parents learned about the Exxon Gas Station and the strange 911 call that Marissa had made.

The call was odd. She indicated she was lost, didn’t know how to get home, and also didn’t have a phone. It’s not clear whose phone she used to make that call, and law enforcement has never publicly said either.

She’s concerned during the call, but not panicked.

This call was important for a couple of reasons. It placed Marissa at 3:40 a.m. at the Exxon Gas Station and gave a little background has to what happened. It also let investigators know why she didn’t have her phone.

It also led to the next step in the investigation, which was to obtain security footage from Exxon.

Law enforcement was able to review it, and sure enough, they saw Marissa getting dropped off.

Marissa at the Exxon Gas Station the Night She Vanished

They will also see her shortly after getting into someone else’s car and leaving the scene.

Interestingly, law enforcement has identified those individuals, but hasn’t released their identity, referring to them only as ‘witnesses’.

Detectives have stated that they do have more information, but at this time, are not releasing anything to the public.

They did conduct a thorough search of the Airbnb that Marissa had been at that night/morning, but didn’t disclose if any evidence was uncovered.

The female friend who had been living with Marissa and her family left the house the day Marissa vanished and has never returned.

Her family remains suspicious of her behavior and her seemingly disinterest in finding her missing friend.

Marissa’s family kept up the search as best as they could. They tried to keep her name in the media, and they worked with community organizations to hang up flyers, go door to door, search areas around the Exxo,n and track down people who may have seen Marissa the night of January 13, 2024.

They did find it odd that the Exxon gas station repeatedly took down the missing flyers of Marissa, claiming the last man seen picking up Marissa was a regular customer of theirs, and he was disturbed by those posters.

Weird, right?

The family has not found any answers as to where Marissa is.

Her family is adamant that they believe she was kidnapped, possibly for sex trafficking purposes. They said she is a fighter, though, and would have fought back, unless multiple people outnumbered her.

They don’t believe she would have left on her own and abandoned her five children.

Her family cared for her kids as long as they could, but failing health in the family caused them to eventually place the children for adoption.

Marissa’s mother is gravely ill, but continues to hope for answers on where her daughter is.

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA.

Greensboro, North Carolina, is a large city in the North Central part of the state.

Greensboro is the third-largest city in North Carolina, behind Charlotte and Raleigh. They have a current population of just around 300,000 residents.

We could analyze the area around the Exxon where she was last seen, but since Marissa was seen on surveillance camera getting into someone else’s car and leaving, it seems a moot point. It’s likely she’s nowhere near that Exxon station any longer.

And if she left the station between 3:40 and 4:19 a.m., and called her dad just an hour later, we know she was still okay and able to use a phone then. She could have been miles away from Greensboro.

Of course, authorities may have this information, but have chosen to keep it quiet.

​Greensboro, North Carolina, has experienced notable fluctuations in crime rates over recent years. According to the Greensboro Police Department, the city reported 2,499 violent crimes in 2023, marking an 88.9% increase from 1,323 incidents in 2014. Homicides specifically rose from 23 in 2014 to 77 in 2023, a 234.8% surge.

NeighborhoodScout.com’s analysis indicates that Greensboro’s crime rate stands at 47 per 1,000 residents, placing it among the higher rates nationwide. Residents face a 1 in 21 chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime. The violent crime rate is particularly concerning, with a 1 in 120 chance of being a victim, and the city experiences one of the highest murder rates in the nation.

I’m not going to go into all neighborhoods, but statistics do show that some areas of the city have much higher crime rates than others.

For example, the university area is considered much safer, and the area that Marissa was last seen is considered one of the more dangerous neighborhoods.

Is that why it took police almost 40 minutes to get to her in those early morning hours? Were they on another call and shorthanded? Still seems they should have arrived much quicker than 40 minutes, but it’s possible they also didn’t see it as a true emergency since Marissa herself indicated it wasn’t.

But since when do authorities take a caller’s word for things on a 911 call?

There aren’t a lot of desolate and obscure areas around Greensboro. The type of areas where a person can remain hidden. Of course, with North Carolina in general, there are mountains and forests within an hour’s drive of Greensboro.

There are a few notable water sources in and around Greensboro.

Lake Brandt: An 816-acre municipal reservoir located in north Greensboro. It features fishing, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, canoeing, and hiking trails.

Lake Townsend: As Greensboro’s largest reservoir, Lake Townsend offers boating, sailing, and fishing opportunities. The marina provides boat rentals and hosts sailing events. The surrounding trails are popular for hiking and birdwatching. ​

Lake Townsend covers over 1500 acres and is around 34 feet deep at it’s deepest points.

Buffalo Lake is a 77-acre private reservoir situated in Greensboro, North Carolina. Historically, it served as a water source for a textile mill, remnants of which still exist at the lake’s eastern end. The lake is primarily surrounded by gated residential communities, limiting public access.

So, what questions do you have on the case of Marissa Carmichael’s disappearance?

Theories ran rampant in the early days of disappearance, so I don’t want to foster any mistruths, but there are a few possible theories.

Human Trafficking. This is the theory her family believes.

Foul Play. Something must have happened to Marissa to keep her away from her family for so long, and concealed.

Left on her own. Perhaps this mother of five was struggling more than people knew and had to get out on her own.

It’s worth noting, there has been no activity on her social media accounts, of which she was active daily. There have been no hits on her Social Security numbers or any other identification hits either.

It’s truly as if she vanished into thin air.

What do you think happened to Marissa Carmichael?

Marissa is described as a bi-racial female, standing 5’5” and weighing around 250 pounds when she was last seen in the early morning hours of January 14, 2024.

Marissa was just 25 years old.

Marissa has shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes.

She has a heart tattoo on her face and a butterfly tattoo near her eye. She was last seen wearing a white Tweety Bird T-shirt, blue jeans , and yellow sneakers

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Marissa Carmichael, please contact Crime Stoppers at 336–373–1000 or the Greensboro Police Department at 336–350–5839.