MIDLAND, Texas — It's been over four years since Caitlin Denison went missing, after flying to Midland from Reno, Nevada with an unknown man.
There had been no leads and no trace of Denison since then, which turned the case into a cold case. That is, until Midland Police detective Jennie Alonzo picked up the case in November of 2021.
Now, she's trying look down new avenues that weren't explored early on in the case. This includes trying to use Caitlin's digital footprint.
"We’re kind of running down the electronic side of things to see if we can find a digital footprint of what happened to Caitlin," Alonzo said.
A popular YouTube channel brought Caitlin's case back to light, and it was then that the case got picked back up.
"The case came back to light in November of 2021 because a YouTuber had put her case online, and so it came back to our knowledge that she was missing still," Alonzo said. "I took on the case and believe that there were other avenues of approach that we haven’t done back in 2018 that we could do follow-ups on."
Alonzo hasn't been without help. Siblings of Caitlin, Rachael Denison and Nimbus Walsh-Denison, along with a close family friend in Emily Watson, have put together a Facebook page to help gather any information they can to help find Caitlin.
"Having the page, because it has such a big outreach, at least several times a month somebody that I have never met, never talked to, don’t even have any mutual friends with, somebody on the opposite side of the world, will tag me in something and be like 'look into this. It reminded me of Caitlin,'" Watson said.
Getting another detective on the case has brought Caitlin's friends and family a renewed sense of hope.
"I am just really thankful that we are finally able to communicate with someone who wants to listen to us, and keep us in the loop, and do everything they can and are still willing to retrace steps that we thought were missed," Rachael Denison said.
Caitlin Denison has been described by her family and friends as a light in this world and has a big heart. They say she is always willing to help people when they needed help, even if she is down herself.
They hope that a renewed effort by detective Alonzo and utilizing social media and other digital tools will help shed new light on the case to help find her.