Casper police are asking the public for help locating Kandice Gunter, 30, a mother of two who was reported missing after she failed to pick up her children from an after-school club in Natrona County.
Gunter was last seen Thursday morning and was reported missing to the Casper Police Department later that evening. Her sister, Kayla Gunter, who lives 930 miles away in Dayton, Nev., filed the missing-person report after Kandice did not show up to collect her children, ages 9 and 6, from the Boys & Girls Club on Wednesday.
“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.
Gunter had moved from Nevada to Casper about a month ago to be closer to her children. The children’s father lives in Casper, and although the couple is no longer together, Gunter had been staying in his household and helping care for the kids, according to Cowboy State Daily.
Police said Gunter was last known to be traveling in a gray 2016 GMC Canyon pickup bearing Wyoming temporary registration. Her last known cellphone location was along Highway 387, near the Natrona County line, around 12:30 p.m. Friday. The family had also been 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. They last spoke at 10:41 a.m. Wednesday, and Kayla said nothing in that conversation suggested anything was wrong. Gunter stopped answering calls afterward.
In the days before she vanished, Gunter posted a cryptic message on Facebook: “Success for me, happens in silence.” In June, she had written about “focusing on a better me. Again,” alongside a heart-mending emoji.
Kayla said the move from Nevada appeared to be going well and that her sister had given no indication she planned to leave or cut off contact. Gunter was still relatively new to Wyoming and had not established a large circle of friends in the area.
On Saturday, Kayla made an emotional plea on Facebook: “Lord please just give me a sign my sister is alive. Please.”
“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,” a friend also posted Saturday.
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 about Gunter’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Casper Police Department.
