25-year-old Marissa Carmichael from High Point, North Carolina, is missing. Her mother told The North Carolina Beat that she found blood-stained pillows at an Airbnb where her daughter was reportedly at for a party with 45-year-old Shawn Eliely.
A mother in North Carolina told The North Carolina Beat that she and her family are currently searching for 25-year-old Marissa Carmichael. Marissa was reported missing on Sunday, January 14, 2024, after she had not been heard from following a night out at One17 Sofar Bar & Lounge on N Greene St. in Greensboro.
Sara Carmichael said that her daughter is a mother of five. She told The North Carolina Beat that she has heard different accounts of what happened to her daughter. But she said she believes Shawn Eliely knows what happened to her or where she is. Sara said the Greensboro Police Department has not been in much communication with her; instead, they have been in constant contact with a cousin of hers.
“They have been in contact with her more than me,” Sara said. “I wait on their phone calls for an update but don’t get any and I found out all about the Exxon Gas station and all that stuff from my cousin who the police told.”
One17 Sofa Bar & Lounge
Early on Saturday, Marissa was at home, but she later left to meet up with a female friend. However, they later split up and went their separate ways, according to Sara. That night, Marissa went to One 17 Sofa Bar & Lounge with a male friend. Around 2 a.m. on early Sunday morning, she and her male friend left the club and went to a party at an Airbnb on Gorrell St. The party was reportedly from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.
Sara said she was told that while her daughter and Marissa’s male friend were at the Airbnb, they got into a disagreement, which led the friend to drop Marissa off at an Exxon Gas Station located on West Market Street around 3 am. While there, Marissa reportedly called 911 and told dispatchers that she had been robbed, was lost, and needed help.
“911 didn’t show up for my daughter,” Sara said. “She got into the car with a guy named Shawn.”
Shawn Eliely at Exxon Gas Station on West Market Street.
After the altercation and being abandoned at the Exxon Gas Station, Sara said her daughter got into a car with Shawn Eliely. She said she is having a hard time understanding why her daughter would get into “this guy’s car,” adding that she believes Shawn may have been stalking her daughter prior to this incident. She recalled a month earlier when her daughter had received a strange message from someone asking Marissa if she still worked at the Waffle House.
“It could be him, I don’t know, but I know someone had been stalking her and all of a sudden he just shows up at the gas station,” Sara said.
Since Marissa’s disappearance, her mother has been conducting her own investigation to locate her daughter. She told The North Carolina Beat that she and her family members went to the Airbnb located on Gorrell St. What she discovered could be key pieces to the puzzle of her daughter’s disappearance.
Blood-splattered pillows were found in a trash can at the Airbnb, and the room reportedly had a strong smell of bleach.
On Wednesday night, Sara said she went to an address on Gorrell Street and encountered the housekeeper of the Airbnb. She said Marissa’s children’s father was also there. He then walked up to the housekeeper to ask about one of the apartments.
“The cleaning lady told us that the apartment had already been miraculously cleaned which is weird because that’s her job,” Sara said. “The lady told us that smell of bleach was overwhelming.”
While there, Sara said she flipped over the trash cans and found new pillows in one of them. However, they appeared to have blood splatter on them and looked like someone had tried to scrub them clean.
“I found pillows that looked like they tried to be scrubbed clean,” Sara said. “There was blood-splatter all over these pillows and I took pictures of them.”
Sara said she informed detectives about the blood-splattered pillows, but they dismissed it, saying, “Oh, it’s probably nothing.” She said she called Marissa’s children’s father after they all left the air Airbnb and told him to go back to get the pillows from the trash cans, believing they could be evidence that Greensboro Police Department investigators were ‘throwing away’.
“All of this stuff just seems kind of weird,” Sara told The North Carolina Beat.
‘Let me speak to my daughter’
While Marissa’s whereabouts are still unknown, Sara is holding on to hope. She said she doesn’t want to imagine the worst, but it’s a concern that every parent grapples with. Sara told The North Carolina Beat that, on the other hand, she also feels that her daughter may be have been placed somewhere with no one able to find her.
She said that she has been calling Shawn Eliely, asking him to put her daughter on the phone, reminding him that Marissa was last seen with him.
“He kept coming up with these different stories,” Sara said.
There have also been rumors about Shawn Eliely having a history of allegedly kidnapping women or behaving strangely around them, causing them to feel unsafe. According to a quick search, he has a background in the Navy and is rumored to be a stalker.
911 call
A 911 call obtained by local outlets captured Marissa telling 911 dispatchers that she didn’t know where she was at Greensboro and that all her belongings were thrown out of the car when she was kicked out.
If you see or know Marissa Carmichael’s whereabouts, please call 911.
