Casper police are searching for Kandice Gunter, 30, a mother of two who has not been seen since Thursday morning in Natrona County, Wyoming. She was reported missing later that evening after failing to pick up her children, ages 9 and 6, from the Boys & Girls Club on Wednesday.
Gunter had moved to Casper from Nevada about a month earlier to be closer to her kids. She had been staying in the household of the children’s father, her former partner, and helping care for them.
Her sister, Kayla Gunter, who lives 930 miles away in Dayton, Nevada, filed the missing-person report. “That’s why I started freaking out. It’s totally out of character for her not to show up to get her kids,” Kayla told Cowboy State Daily.
Police say Gunter was last known to be driving a gray 2016 GMC Canyon pickup with Wyoming temporary registration. Her cellphone last ping was recorded along Highway 387, near the Natrona County line, around 12:30 p.m. Friday. The family was also told her phone pinged in the Gillette area around noon Wednesday.
The sisters are close and typically speak by phone at least three times a day. Their last conversation was at 10:41 a.m. Wednesday, and Kayla said nothing seemed wrong. Gunter stopped answering calls afterward.
In the days before she vanished, Gunter posted a cryptic message to Facebook: “Success for me, happens in silence.” In June, she had written about “focusing on a better me. Again,” with a heart-mending emoji.
Kayla said her sister’s move to Wyoming appeared to be going well and that she had given no indication she planned to leave or cut off contact. Gunter was still relatively new to the state and had not built a large circle of friends there.
“Lord please just give me a sign my sister is alive. Please.”
Kayla posted that plea to Facebook on Saturday. A friend also wrote on Saturday: “I looked so hard but there’s so much wide open spaces with one set of sad eyes hope you’re okay!! 14 years you’ve been in my life and can’t end it like this Kandice Gunter.”
Gunter is described as 5-foot-7 and about 185 pounds, with black hair and blue eyes. She has a butterfly tattoo on her neck, a memorial tattoo for her mother on the side of her neck, and additional tattoos on her arms, hands, legs and feet.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Casper Police Department.
