Four Women from Castaneda’s Inner Circle Still Missing

As detailed in the Introduction and Chronologies on this site, five of the women closest to Castaneda disappeared in the days immediately following Castaneda’s death on April 27, 1998. Details of the disappearance of five of the women closest to Castaneda, and the eventual discovery and positive identification of the remains of one of them, Nury Alexander (aka the Blue Scout, née Patricia Partin), near Death Valley’s Panamint Dunes added to the site here.

None of the other four women–Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar, Kylie Lundahl and Talia Bey–have been seen or heard from according to any reliable accounts since the two Ford vehicles they were driving (Taisha and Florinda in Taisha’s Ford Aerostar; Kylie and Talia in Kylie’s four-door red Taurus) left the Westwood compound in April 1998. Although the four were primary beneficiaries under Castaneda’s will, the estate executor, Deborah Drooz (Castaneda’s lawyer) confirmed to Talia’s persistent brother, Luis Marquez, years after Castaneda’s death that she had not had any contact with the four and that none of them had received any of the money they would have been due under the will.

Amy Wallace and I were both convinced the four had headed east to an abandoned mine in or around Death Valley, or possibly further east in Nevada, that they had previously identified as a place they could commit suicide and ensure their remains would not be found. This is based not only on what we heard directly from Castaneda during night and Sunday sessions regarding research and plans Talia and others had made, but also on Amy’s interactions with Taisha, Florinda and Kylie in the days leading up to Castaneda’s demise and both of our dealings with Carol Tiggs and others at Cleargreen in the weeks following his death. Nury failed to join them when they headed out but followed a day or two later and ended up driving to where her red Ford Escort was subsequently found, days later.

Meanwhile, Cleargreen, Inc., the corporation Castaneda established to market and deliver Tensegrity workshops, continued to lie and obfuscate about the fates of the missing women for years, as summarized here.

Also added to that page is info about and a link to the website, 4MissingWomen, set up by Castaneda biographer Ru Marshall and family members of the missing women.

©️ 2024 by Richard Jennings, all rights reserved

Related Links:

• Missing Women
• Sloppy, Verbose, Pseudo Journalism – Geoffrey Gray’s Alta Journal piece
• Sunday Session, May 11, 1997, at Dance Home
• Never Before Published: Taisha Abelar Chronology
• Cleargreen Night Sessions