The Haunting Disappearances and Murders Of The Bakersfield 3 Pt. 1 Micah HolsonBake

It started with Micah Holsonbake.

Micah Blaine Holsonbake was a jokester and was always quick to say what was on his mind.

He was a shoulder to cry on and the life of the party.

“Micah was also extremely loyal,” he said. “He would go to bat for anybody he cared for. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He was genuine and caring, always helpful and kind.”

said Scott Haagensen, who was a youth minister at the church in the late 1990s when Holsonbake was part of his youth group.

Jackie Chase, who was a member of Holsonbake’s youth group who became a close friend with him said,

“He just had this aura about him that you knew he loved you,” she said. “Even on his darkest days, regardless of what he was going through, he would tell you how much you were loved and make sure you knew it.

“He wanted you to have the best life, and he wanted you to be happy,” she said. “What I want you to do when you leave here is don’t be sad, because he wouldn’t want that. He would want you to know that you are loved.”

Micah Holsonbake was 35 years old when he was last seen on March 23, 2018, in the area of Flower Street and Mount Vernon Avenue in East Bakersfield, California.

A year before he disappeared, Micah had been laid off from his job at a local bank after going on disability leave related to depression.

He met new friends, the kind he didn't normally associate with, and went to bars and other places he never have went to before.

Micah told his family that he had been threatened and feared for his safety. At the time, Micah's family thought that maybe he just was paranoid.

Looking back, Cheryl believes her son was telling the truth. She has learned her son sold small amounts of drugs, possibly to support a habit.

“My mom instinct is that he found himself in over his head,” she said. “And kept himself in that situation because he was afraid for his family, because he felt like he would be hurt if he didn’t.”

The last time Cheryl saw Micah, she dropped him off in a bad neighborhood near Kern Medical Center. She said something felt off and she tried to convince him to go to dinner, but he refused and she drove away.

Micah Holsonbake had called his mother, Cheryl, the morning of March 17, 2018, asking her to help him pay for a hotel room for a friend. Cheryl didn’t have the money for the room and an argument ensued, so she hung up on him.

"He was upset at me that I didn’t care. It was kind of a manipulative anger,” Cheryl said. “And I wasn’t in the mood to go there, so I didn’t. So yeah. I’ve regretted it. I still wouldn’t have had the money to do it, but I still regret hanging up on him.”

That was the last time Cheryl heard from her son.

Two weeks later she filed a missing person's report, after she didn't hear anything back from police.

A month after Micah was last seen, Cheryl received a call from Diane Byrne. She said her son, James Kulstad, had been killed a few weeks earlier, and it appeared that their children had many mutual friends.

The Haunting Disappearances and Murders Of The Bakersfield 3 Part 2
The Haunting Disappearances And Murders Of the Bakersfield 3 Part 3