WHY DID CARLOS CASTANEDA'S ADOPTED DAUGHTER DIE IN DEATH VALLEY?

HISTORICAL DATA

Death of Carlos Castaneda

Castaneda died on April 27, 1998 at the age of 72 from liver cancer.

After this event, Nury Alexander (Carlos Castaneda's adopted daughter) and four other personal disciples of Castaneda never appeared again.

Gaby Geuter's testimony

Gaby Geuter was a student of Castaneda in the 1990s.

Nury's disappearance was often grouped with the other four missing women, but Geuter stated that Nury left at least several days later.

"We saw her driving around town after the others had left, and that surprised us. Also, I think that if the five women had left together, then Nury's 1991 Ford Escort wouldn't have been the vehicle of choice when there were newer and larger vehicles available," Geuter said.

Carol's confession to Amy

Carol Tiggs was Carlos Castaneda's shamanic partner; she was "the nahual woman" and was the only person very close to Castaneda who did not disappear after he died.

Amy Wallace was a writer who became Castaneda's lover and was a close friend of Castaneda's women.

In the weeks following Castaneda's death, Carol confessed to Amy that Florinda, Taisha, Kylie, and Talia had committed suicide. She also told her a story about Nury, who had called her from a motel in Death Valley.

Carol told Amy that when Nury left for the desert, she left her apartment a complete mess. Carol, Tracy Kramer, and Brandon Scott had to clean up. Then they divided up her most valuable belongings and distributed them among the group members.

After allegedly receiving a call from Nury, Carol claimed that she drove to where Nury was with a lot of money to give her, finding her covered in blood as Nury had attempted suicide.

She told Amy that Nury clung pathetically to her leg, repeating over and over, "I'm worthless, I'm a total failure!"

Carol tried to convince Nury that there was no need to commit suicide, that she was a young and talented woman, and that the fact that Castaneda had died and the other women had disappeared didn't mean Nury had to follow them..

Carol said: “I brought her a lot of money, a huge amount!, and I told her to go to Ireland and set up a printing business. Why not? She has her whole life ahead of her and all that money!”

Subsequent events show that Nury did travel to Death Valley, and therefore it is possible that she did speak to Carol on the phone from there.

But it's unlikely that Carol drove for many hours to Death Valley to bring money to Nury.

First, because it's a nine-hour round trip drive from Los Angeles to Death Valley.

Secondly, because Carol felt a lot of antipathy towards Nury, who had long since taken Carol's place as Castaneda's favorite, and also as detailed in Amy's book, 'The Witch's Apprentice', Carol suffered many years of humiliation and abuse because of Nury.

And third, because the succession process had not yet begun and Carol did not yet have Castaneda's inheritance and therefore did not have much money at her disposal to give to Nury.

Nury's car is found

On May 2, 1998, Death Valley park ranger Dave Brenner found an abandoned red 1991 Ford Escort on the dirt road leading to the trail to the Panamint Dunes.

Journalist Geoffrey Gray interviewed Brenner, who told him:

« “It was odd,” he recalls, describing how he stumbled across Partin’s red Escort. "Normally, when cars are dumped in Death Valley, it’s in parking lots or on the side of a main road, he says. Tourists abandon their rentals near places where they can call a taxi or be trailed by one. But Partin’s car was not found near a parking area or pavement of any kind. It was almost, Brenner says, as if the driver had chosen to continue through the sand until their auto puttered out and keeled over. This was a one-way trip,” he says.

Brenner remembers the day well. May 2, 1998. Wearing his flappy ranger cap to block the sun and equipped with a Pentax camera to snap images for his report, Brenner inspected the unattended car closely. He peered through the front windows, the back windows. He checked the handles of all the doors. They were locked, he says. He used a slim jim to open one of the doors and then searched the interior. He carefully examined the front and back seats, the console, the glove box, the drink holders.

“This car was clean,” he recalls.

Nothing was inside. No coffee cup. No loose change. No stick of gum. It was suspicious.

“Wouldn’t you carry a wallet? Your purse?” he says, wondering why the owner of the car (or perhaps a companion?) had removed any identifying elements.

He moved around to the trunk. He was scrutinizing the rear of the car, looking for any dings on the bumper, when he noticed that the license plate had been stripped. The front one was missing too.

“There was nothing there,” he says.

Brenner went into tracker mode. He scanned the ground in every direction for footprints. He combed the dunes for tire tracks. Using a law enforcement database, he checked the vehicle’s identification number and learned that the car had been registered to Partin. The address and contact info were for Cleargreen in Los Angeles, the company through which Castaneda and the witches conducted their workshops. When Brenner called the office, the employee who answered did not seem to care about the missing car.

“It was like, ‘Ho hum. Blah, blah, blah. No, we have not seen her,’ ” Brenner says.

He remembers thinking that the person’s cavalier attitude was strange. The lack of empathy and concern for Partin gave him pause. “They were never like, ‘Oh, is she OK?’ ” »

Amy was in Cleargreen when Brandon (an instructor) received the call. She recounts in her book that days later, one or more agents from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) showed up at the office and met with Tracy Kramer, who was Castaneda's agent.

Shortly after, John Miller of the John Miller Towing Company was called to pick up the car. In an interview for the Trickster podcast, Miller commented that in nearly 50 years he had towed thousands of cars, but this one didn't escape his notice because the circumstances were so unusual: the car was immaculate, the keys were inside, it was very strange. He towed it to his garage in Lone Pine.

Skeletal remains discovered

On February 15, 2003, two hikers discovered bones scattered in the Panamint dune area.

One of the discoverers, Kevin Barth, described the scene in an interview for the Trickster podcast: “We could see some bones spread around in an area. We assumed coyotes had dragged them around. ... We put up tent and made dinner. It was a full moon night, we went back to look at the bones. Went down with flashlights and poked around.”

They thought they were looking at vertebrae. Barth’s friend Blaine held up a jawbone with teeth and fillings and they realized it was human. A “kind of chill goes through your spine finding a dead body in Death Valley,” Barth said. He is still amazed he noticed the bones at all, given that “the backdrop was white on white.” The two hikers reported the finding the next day to the Inyo County Sheriff’s office, giving the coordinates of the find.

On February 17, 2003, Inyo County Sheriffs investigator Marston Mottweiller and Deputy Coroner Cecil Compton arrived at the location of the remains. Per their interviews that are part of Chapter 9 of the Trickster podcast, they saw bones, in particular a femur, jawbone, the backbone and lower part of the sacrum. Everything else was missing. There was no skull and no identification.

According to Mottweiller, maggots would have attacked the body, along with insects, and possibly coyotes, wolves, mountain lion. “That’s why you find the bones scattered around the desert floor.” He also reported two “puzzling discoveries”: shreds of nylon athletic style exercise pants (pink), and in the pocket “a silver metal disc about the size of a half dollar but thicker with a curved knife blade that folded out.”

The two bagged the bones and took them to the morgue. The bones were too weathered for DNA testing. The coroner determined they belonged to a woman, probably in her 40’s at time of death. The two were puzzled over how she got there, but “needed an ID to figure that out. You have to have facts and then you try to fit it into a story.” They subsequently sent out interagency communications. Two months passed and they learned Death Valley Park Ranger Dave Brenner had found the abandoned car May 2, 1998.

On February 2003, Mottweiller asked John Miller, who had towed Nury’s car in 1998, if he could find it. Miller tracked it down with the VIN number. Mottweiller found out Patricia Partin had been adopted by Castaneda, and that she was his lover, by searching the Internet (i.e., SustainedAction.org)

On June 25, 2003, Mottweiler wrote Patty’s mother to let her know remains were discovered that might be those of her daughter. He concluded the letter, “I’m sure this is distressing but hopefully could lead to answered questions and closure for you.”

On February 2006, those remains were positively identified as belonging to Nury using advanced DNA analysis techniques. They were compared with DNA samples taken from Nury's mother and three sisters.

Conclusion

After Carlos Castaneda's death, Nury drove to Death Valley where she died, but this raises several questions:

Why did she choose this method of suicide?

Did she commit suicide or was she murdered?

Was she alone or with someone?

And if she was accompanied, was it with the other women who also disappeared, or with someone else?

OBSERVATIONS

Was Nury murdered or did she commit suicide?

Journalist Geoffrey Gray theorizes that Nury was murdered.

« I ask Brenner whether he still has the photos from his investigation. Incredibly, he’s willing to search and promises to call back. A week later, I receive another message: he’s found the negatives. He emails the images to me to review along with him.

“Surprisingly, I have found a possible clue to add some [intrigue] to the missing person’s car,” he writes in a follow-up email, directing my attention to the trunk lock. “It appears on the first examination to be?”

I zoom in on the negative in question. The image is not in focus, but I can see what he’s referring to. The shape is circular, and it looks like a dark, empty hole. Its diameter could be the width of a dime or maybe a nickel, and the edges are frayed, as if something tore right through it. Wait, really? A bullet hole?

Brenner’s not sure how he missed this possibility. Could there have been foul play?

Why, yes, I tell him. Partin was one of the main beneficiaries of Castaneda’s estate, along with the missing chacmools.

Brenner’s voice perks up. “So, the beneficiaries are either dead or missing, yet the company continues to collect their assets?” he asks.

That could explain the clean car, I think. Someone wanted to keep Partin’s disappearance a secret and went to great lengths to dump her vehicle without leaving a trace. »

While the possibility that Nury was murdered cannot be ruled out, I consider it highly unlikely because the only suspect was Carol, but after investigating her, I don't get the impression that she had a killer's nature. Furthermore, she was the primary heir and remained in charge of Cleargreen. That's why I'm more inclined to believe that Nury committed suicide.

Why did she commit suicide?

Nury didn't commit suicide due to lack of money, since Castaneda bequeathed her one hundred thousand dollars and a share of future royalties in his will. Therefore, it's more likely that Nury took her own life out of emotional despair.

And just like the other four women who disappeared, they had become so existentially dependent on Castaneda that when their guru died, they could not conceive of continuing to live without their "Nahual".

Was Nury alone or accompanied in Death Valley?

I get the impression that Nury was alone, and even that the other women sent her to this place so they wouldn't have to deal with her.

Journalist Geoffrey Gray commented:

« Kylie's older sister had her own theory about the discovery of Nury's remains in Death Valley. "Those women didn't want Nury to go with them, so they told Nury to go to the desert and that they would be there. But when Nury arrived, they weren't there.

Sending Nury to that desert was a ruse, a way to get rid of Castaneda's daughter.

Kylie would have hated someone like Nury. Having grown up in such difficult circumstances, Kylie had little respect for those who lacked discipline and a strong work ethic. Kylie hated people who couldn't stand up for themselves.

For Kylie and Castaneda's other disciples, their guru's death must have represented an opportunity, a chance to break free, to live without the burdens of their recent past, and Nury was one of those burdens. She was another obstacle preventing them from being free, a challenge they no longer wanted to deal with.

Nury and her dolls, her mood swings, and her childishly tantrum-like attitude, saw her as a nuisance. If they were going to free themselves (by committing suicide), they weren't going to do it with Nury by their side". »

This theory sounds plausible, and it is very likely that Castaneda's 'warriors' told Nury to meet them at the Panamint Springs Resort (which was the only motel in Death Valley at the time) and when Nury arrived, she discovered that they had lied to her and abandoned her.

The pain of rejection could have been terrible, and perhaps that's why Nury tried to take her own life, and then, when she failed, she called Carol in a panic.

Carol answered her, but she abandoned her too.

Why did Nury then drive to the Panamint dunes?

Amy noted in her book that Castaneda once told her that "If Nury failed to accompany him to Infinity, all she had to do was get into her little red car and drive very, very fast into the desert, where the car, with her inside, would ascend to a higher plane."

If this assertion is true, then Nury believed it and carried it out. She may even have believed that the other women were going to do the same, which is why they had summoned her to this place.

But after driving her car very fast into the desert, it keeled over. Not knowing what to do, she abandoned her vehicle and then wandered among the dunes until finally, overcome by thirst, she collapsed and died.

The Panamint Dunes in Death Valley

 

There are still unanswered questions:

Why were all the car doors closed?

Perhaps Nury did it accidentally; she was very nervous and automatically locked the car door as she got out.

Why didn't the car have license plates?

Maybe someone stole them.

What caused that hole in  the trunk lock?

Perhaps this thief also tried to open the trunk.

~ * ~

The explanation I gave you above I believe is the most likely, but the matter has not yet been completely resolved.