Coffee and Crime Time: The Bakersfield Three

she's like a sickness in my brain a vision standing by the window pane she ripples through the blinds and leaves me in a daze it's in the way about a movie The Wizard Basma and a toxic my my [Music] fragile get it in a time it all just [Music] hello everybody and welcome back to my channel and thank you for joining me for another coffee and crime time I know I said I was gonna take a little break but life goes on and things don't stop happening and today we're talking about a case that has been a mystery for a little over two years but recently there have been some new developments we're talking about the Bakersfield three case which happened in Bakersfield California where three young people who appeared to be connected all went missing or died within the course of one month on March 23rd 2018 34 year-old Micah Holson Bakke was reported missing his friends kept calling his family because they hadn't seen or heard from him and they wanted to know if his family had his mother Cheryl attempted to file a police report but claims she got the runaround from the police not even two weeks later on April 8th another young man James kallstadt was found shot and killed in his mother's car in southwest Bakersfield his mother reported that he had just been helping Micah Holson Bakke move just two weeks before Mike I'd gone missing the two mothers got together and compared stories and timelines feeling there must be a connection James mother Diane told Cheryl that something wasn't right and she believed that the boys knew the same people and hung out in the same circles Cheryl Holson Bakke said quote we started comparing notes sure enough there were far too many similarities to be comfortable with a few weeks later another young resident of Bakersfield disappeared 20 year-old Bailey despot Bailey was last seen in the front yard of a residence she shared with her boyfriend at the time a man named Matthew Queen it seems before she went missing her circumstances were deteriorating she'd been married prior and gotten a divorce in the spring of 2017 after this she began to hang out with a new crowd doing a lot of drinking and using drugs in the summer of 2017 she was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct but the charge was later dismissed now I have seen her reported that she was arrested for this drunk and disorderly in front of Micah's house but I only saw that in one or two places and they don't see it reported everywhere so I'm not sure how much fact there is to it but I thought I would mention it in August of 2017 she was reportedly sexually assaulted at an apartment complex and in December she was arrested on felony weapon charges she pled guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to three years probation this same month one of Micah Holson bakes arms was found in a duffel bag at Hart park in the Kern River the rest of his body has yet to be recovered after her issues with the law Bailey moved in with Matthew Queen and a few months later she was gone she stopped posting on social media and no one could get a hold of her now it turned out that in one way or the other all three of these individuals were affiliated with each other and they came to be known as the Bakersfield 3 when Bailey went missing her parents put up flyers with her face and information on them and Cheryl wholesome baked saw one of these flyers her husband Lance pointed out that he had seen this young girl before that their son had known her at this point Cheryl reached out to Bailey's mother Jane parent and all three mothers formed a group focused on finding out what happened to their children Jane said quote I'm hoping my daughter is alive but my momma heart tells me something is different it's been two years and for all this time there have been really no leads these three mothers have been working together to bring justice to their children feeling that they were all experiencing the same level of loss the loss of being a parent who's missing their child whether that child is gone or dead and all of these disappearances and deaths are surrounded by mysterious circumstances there have been no arrests there have been no leads there have been no breaks in the case they all lost their children and none of them knew what had happened to them they knew there was a connection but they really had no idea exactly what that connection was and knowing what we know now I'm sure they never could have guessed let's talk about Micah for a moment his father Lance described him as someone who would walk into a room and light it up Lance said quote I'm sure somebody would say well Lance would light up a room when I walked into it but no I wouldn't definitely wouldn't but Myka really would Micah's nickname when he was a child was stats because he would give you statistics on everything he loved football he was an active member of the debate forensics team after a year of college at Harding University he joined the Navy but was discharged shortly after for reoccurring issues with growths in his throat he returned to Bakersfield where he got married had children and started down the path of a career in banking he began as a teller but he worked his way up the ladder training and working hard to become a broker and a financial advisor according to his family his work was 99% of his life however according to his father Lance the last two years of Micah's life saw him experience a dramatic personality change Lance believes that his son became addicted to prescribed pain medication after going through a bad separation and undergoing multiple surgeries on his throat Lance said quote he was very afraid for his life and involved in some things that at first I didn't know what they were and he had never misbehaved before so when he would tell me I'm afraid of this guy and this guy in this group or whatever I would think he was paranoid he always thought someone was following us in the car so I thought he's paranoid and I didn't know how much of it was real or how much of it was exaggerated in his mind by any kind of drug use he may have been using at that time then Micah told his father something that Lance still cannot believe to this day he said I'm putting together guns I'm going here and putting together guns for these particular people Lance claims at this time he thought Michael was lying or exaggerating now he wishes he had taken him more seriously why are you doing that if you're doing that stop just stop you know just get out of there if you disobey just stop yeah I can't do that I can't do that he was afraid if he did that disappeared having owned something owing money or something like that they would hurt his family Lance said my son was mixed up for the first time in his life with something illegal he's a grown man he's had his own family you know separated from his family at the time so it's logical for the police to think yeah he's out of town he's hiding out the family decided if the police weren't going to take them seriously they would have to look into it for themselves manses youngest son was putting out feelers trying to figure out who Micah had been mixed up with and someone told him that he needed to talk to Bailey he came to me said they said something about Bailey parent and I said I don't know who that is he said I don't think it's a person I think it's like a gang in Louisiana or something has it look I don't think you heard that right but we know us and I think within a week I saw that she was missing in Bakersfield and Lance thought something had happened to Bailey because she knew what had happened to Micah let's talk about James Cole stat now and it's actually a really really sad story I mean they all are but James's daughter at Cameron has been very vocal about what it meant to her to lose her father her mother died in a car accident when she was just 16 months old and she was raised by her grandparents though she did see her father often he would pick her out for sleepovers they'd stay up late watch movies and every time they watched a movie they would bake these cookies from store-bought cookie dough and they burned the cookies every single time and now Cameron says she can't make cookies without burning them because she doesn't like the taste of them if they're not burnt sadly though when she was in high school she realized that her father had a drug problem during an unexpected visit to his house she saw crushed up pills sitting next to a rolled up dollar bill she didn't bring it up at the time to him but she noticed he began to pull away from her and call her less so as a result she didn't reach out as much either and they grew apart that was was one of our main talks you do not get yourself involved in drugs it is not okay he was clear-headed and so when he started getting involved in this it was crazy it was like we went from having this great relationship to I just fought so hard for him I felt like never fought so hard for someone who loved me I felt like yeah it turns so dark then on the night of April 8th 2018 James's younger brother Ryan was at the house of a friend when he claims James called and when the homeowner hung up with James he informed Ryan that James was not welcome at his house allegedly he told Ryan that if James did show up he was going to get his boys and have them come to the house strapped according to Ryan it seems that James did in fact come over and after he left the house he was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Ryan heard the shots and ran out where his brother died in his arms Ryan appeared on the dr. Phil show where the host dr. Phil McGraw asked him why he wouldn't tell the police if he knew who had killed his brother Ryan claimed that if he knew who did it he would say something and he even asked to be given a polygraph test if people don't believe him James was described as a creative entrepreneur who could sell a dollar bill on the side of the road for a million dollars if he could just get five minutes with you so for the past two years we have just thought that one person was the real target perhaps and the other two just knew too much and were collateral damage but these three people were combined to make the Bakersfield three now let's switch gears and talk about Matthew Queen Bailey despots boyfriend at the time of her disappearance he's already been behind bars for a long list of charges including kidnapping burglary manufacturing an assault weapon possession of a firearm by a felon and resisting arrest police say that Queen committed a kidnapping at gunpoint in January when he was out on bail for gun related charges meaning he was not allowed to be carrying a weapon he allegedly knocked on someone's door accompanied by two other suspects and they were led in by a roommate Matthew Queen then went into the intended victims room and stood over him while wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a handgun the victim was held at gunpoint and forced into Queens car apparently Matthew Queen thought this man had snitched on him to the police so this Matthew Queen guy he's pretty bad he's bad news all around no questions asked right at this point Matthew Queen was not named as a suspect in the murder of James or Micah or the disappearance of Bailey but Bailey's mother thought he was definitely involved somehow thinking once again then maybe Bailey knew too much or had seen something and he had to step in and do something that brings us to May 27th of this year just this week the Kern County DA's office has announced that they believe Bailey dispatch and her boyfriend Matthew Queen conspired to murder Micah Holson Bakke they have both been charged with conspiracy to murder and torture Holson Bakke as well as with the actual torture and murder although at this point it's unknown still where bailey despot might be or if she's even still alive Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer gave a press conference this past Thursday and said quote this complaint that we have filed alleges 34 counts the dates involved are December of 2017 through July of 2019 the charges involve murder conspiracy to commit murder torture kidnapping threats manufacture of assault weapons and other weapons charges counts one through five deal with the murder of Micah wholesome Baek count on his murder count - as conspiracy to commit murder now a conspiracy is an agreement with two or more people plus an overt act done in furtherance of the conspiracy count 3 is torture count 4 is conspiracy to commit torture count 5 is kidnapping counts 6 through 12 are against Matthew Queen only and relate to assault against other victims 3 other victims to be exact counts 13 through 34 involve various charges mostly against Queen but some against Bailey and a third person this third person is Matthew Tyler van de Castille and he has also been charged with kidnapping and conspiracy the DA alleges that Matthew Queen used Matthew VanDyke a seals detached garage at 3:02 9 North half moon dr in order to extract information from micah the document says that bailey despot arrived with wholesome baked zip-tied his hands and then Bailey went into the apartment to get a knife there's also indication that both Matthews Queen and Vandy Castile researched afterwards how to dissolve a human body the conspiracy to manufacture assault weapons charges have been filed against all three parties as well as the victim Micah Holson Bakke Matthew Queen faces the penalty of 50 years to life if convicted bailey despot faces a maximum of 25 to life if she's ever found and brought to justice and Vandy Casteel faces 16 years during the press conference our reporter asks if they can assume that bailey despot is alive and in hiding or if they can assume that she's deceased and zimmer responds that they can't really assume anything and that there is information to suggest both might be true she's unaccounted for and because she's unaccounted for and not declared deceased she's been charged as a criminal defendant in this case as far as motive Zimmer says this will be established at the preliminary hearing since Bailey is missing I do have a feeling that these two guys probably turned on her so we don't really know exactly what her part is in this whole situation as far as the third member of the Bakersfield 3 James kallstadt the DA's office claims they have no evidence to show that his death was linked to what happened with Bayley mica and the two Matthews so it seems at this point the Bakersfield three has become the Bakersfield - okay so who killed James time right these past two years we've been thinking all of these cases have been connected and now come to find that the DA's office doesn't believe they are at all it may allow us to look at his death in a different light but there's so very little known about his death and there remains on salt however the story of how James took a bad path is very similar to Micah's it seems that he was injured at one point and was prescribed pain medication which he became addicted to which turned into an addiction to harder substances all we really know about that night he died was he was leaving the house of a chiropractor a chiropractor who was an associate of his a house where allegedly he wasn't welcome and a silver sedan was seen in the area driving at a high rate of speed near the time of the shooting this chiropractor has since agreed to surrender his license be of drug and gun convictions and he appears to have been convicted on September 11th 2018 five months after the death of James I'm not going to give you the name of this chiropractor because I'm unsure of how he's connected you can find it it's available if you google it but I'm not really sure if he was ever looked into considering according to the story that James's brother told us he was the guy who said if James came over he was gonna cause bodies and they would be packing I'm sure the police have done their due diligence there but if everything that's being said about that night is true it's definitely more than a little suspicious the timing is very suspicious but once again this is assuming that the story James's brother told dr. Phil is true and it does seem like there might be some truth to it considering that this chiropractor was later charged with drug and weapons charges what does connect the bakersfield 3 still to this day is the path that their lives all seemed to have taken it appeared that they all came from families who loved and supported them didn't financially struggle yet they all took a bad turn somewhere along the road Bailey used to call herself flower child she wore 70 style clothes people who knew her said she had that great a smile and the greatest laugh but in 2016 she ran off to Vegas to marry a boyfriend without telling anyone after that marriage ended Bailey's mother says Bailey wrecked her car lost her job and although she was trying to get her life back on track it just spiraled out of control she became involved with older men one of them being Matthew Queen who was twice her age Micah Holson Bakke was described as being loyal genuine caring always helpful always kind and in fact when Micah's mother reached out to Bailey's mother about the possible connection Bailey's mom remembered micah is someone who would occasionally help her daughter out it seemed that they were friends Micah and I we're friends I hadn't known that he knew my sister when Bailey's sister Kaitlyn met Micah he was working as a banker and living a clean life she thinks Micah crossed paths with her little sister in the Rosedale drug scene just as Kaitlyn began to lose touch with him but Bailey hanging out with Micah wasn't a concern in fact Bailey's mother believes that Micah tried to help Bailey get out of a new relationship that Bailey said was abusive ultimately in August 2017 Bailey sought a domestic violence restraining order against her then-boyfriend so she dealt with that was around bad people in that relationship a year before he disappeared Micah was laid off from his bank job after going on disability leave related to depression the last time Micah's mother saw him she was dropping him off in a bad neighborhood near Curran Medical Center and she said she got a really bad feeling she didn't want to leave him there and she tried to convince him to go to dinner with her but he wouldn't he called her on the morning of March 17th asking if she would pay for a hotel room for a friend of his but she said no which upset him she said quote he was upset at me that I didn't care it was kind of a manipulative anger and I wasn't in the mood to go there so I didn't so yeah I've regretted it I still would've had the money to do it but I still regret hanging up on him and it was the last time that she would ever hear his voice James Kolstad had once been an avid surfer an entrepreneur an inventor one of the more memorable things about James Kolstad for loved ones is his entrepreneurial spirit from owning his own skateboard shop and getting a patent or his invention torch trucks to les mis bibs Kolstad found success early on in life he left behind his teenage daughter who has just broken my heart when I hear her talk about him and I can't imagine what it's like to be so young and lose both of your parents she gave an interview with kg ET News and you can clearly see the battle going on behind her eyes as she talks about how hard she fought for him how she felt when he turned to drugs and she'd lost him before she even really lost him but she said she still always and hope that she could help him she could reach him is she have supported him enough and cared about him enough he would turn things around and whoever killed him took that Hope away from her but I worked so hard I was working so hard on everything I can do to me can get better and they wanted that so bad for them but they always had a hope I always had to hope for him I was hanging on to hope and whoever killed him took that away from me like I don't anymore he's not gonna come on to wake up in the morning and not think like what is he scared like was he scared one person was shooting at the car like what was going through his mind did he think like Oh or do you think that he was gonna make it it's so scary for think about because I don't know her anymore she's so young so young to be having these thoughts about what was going through her father's head after he got shot she worries that people see him as just another addict who got killed in pursuit of his habit and they won't care she wants people to know that this wasn't her father at all he was so much more than a man who made a few bad decisions he was her father he was her life it takes a certain person to look somebody in the eyes and kill them it takes a really terrible person who I felt bad for I feel so bad for the person who killed my dad I don't hate him I don't care about him I hurt though for him I hurt so bad that somebody could have had it so bad in their life to where they can take another human beings life I want that person to look at me and see me like really seeing me we kind of took away everything for me what definitely seems to be the common thread in all of these cases is drugs and when I researched these true crime cases I want to know as much as I can about the people involved especially the victims I want to bring to you their lives who they were who they were to the people around them almost as much as I want to bring you the facts in the evidence of the case I have some personal experience with caring for someone very deeply who is addicted to drugs and it was very tough for me to go through these family accounts hear how each and every one of these people had family who were deeply affected by the turn that they took in life the decisions that they decided to make and I really think that's why Cameron's story about her father James tugged at my heartstrings the most because I was listening to her talking and I've been in her shoes I've been in her position and it wasn't my parent or anything I don't want anybody jumping to conclusions and posting that I have drug addict parents on guru gossip but it was somebody that I cared about with all of my heart and I had to watch for years as they struggled with addiction relapsed stole from me stole from their own family and battle this demon that had taken over their bodies their lives and sometimes their souls and I knew this person didn't want to be in this position and I can't tell you how many times I had to drive them to rehab check them in only to get a call that they'd left how many times I took them to you know weekly groups after after rehab and how many times I would have to get calls from the woman leading the group saying that this person I just walked out in the middle of the group and I was going to college at that time I remember so very stressful semester because I'd be sitting in class and I'd be getting texts saying that this person I cared about who was telling me that they wanted to get help and I was going out of my way to do everything I could to help them an overlook the things that they had stolen the money they had stolen the ways that they had hurt me and everyone else in their life and I was making an attempt to get them on the right path almost as soon as I would drop them off and leave they would they would leave so there's a great amount of betrayal but there's also a great amount of responsibility on the person who cares about a drug addict you don't want to turn your back on them because you know that they could end up killing themselves with this habit but you also don't want to turn your back on yourself and continue to put yourself in toxic in unhealthy situations where you're the one getting hurt you're the one being betrayed you're the one trying to get a coffee at Dunkin Donuts with your debit card when you just got paid yesterday and suddenly they're telling you your cards declined because somebody drained your bank account that's you you're dealing with this and there's nobody there to help you because the person who should be helping you is the one you're trying to help and they're in no position to help anybody at that point it's true what they say that sometimes you have to let these people hit rock bottom because they are the ones that need to make the decision to get better you can't do it for them and I think that's what some of these families struggled with they didn't want their children their brother their sister to be doing these things and potentially ending up dead but they also knew that at some point nothing they were doing was helping and that is a reality that I think many people in America in the world go through not just drug addicts but the people in their lives I think it's oftentimes a silent struggle I think it's oftentimes an embarrassing struggle that you don't want to tell people about you don't want someone who hasn't experienced what you're experiencing to look at you and judge you for trying to help someone who clearly doesn't want help or won't take it at that point you don't want to tell your family because they're gonna worry about you and then they're gonna judge this person you can't really talk to anybody it's awful and your greatest fear is that something like this what right something that happened to Micah or or Bailey or James that your loved one will end up dead or missing and you didn't do enough so this is very sad case now as far as a Bailey despot is concerned once again I don't want to jump and start speculating about how she was involved and I do think that a lot of the information the police are getting are coming from the two Mathews right because they are both in custody at this point Matthew Queen's been in jail for a while but maybe they found something that connected Queen to Micah's death and they brought that to him and then he was like yeah sure but Bailey helped me now that's just my speculation like the DA said we'll know more during the preliminary hearing we'll find out more about the motive and exactly what happened however if Bailey was involved and it obviously does seem like she was I think that it was probably done under the manipulation of Matthew Queen maybe she was on drugs maybe Queen was providing these drugs to her maybe she was doing whatever it was that she had to do to get drugs or to keep herself safe and because she was a part of this we may stop looking at her as a victim but she is missing and in my opinion because she was there because she knew a little more than maybe Matthew Queen wanted her to know it's it's very likely that she's not alive any longer I mean how could this young girl go in hiding for two years and nobody's ever seen anything from her she'd have to get a new identity I mean we've gone over things like this in cases before it's not as easy especially now to just disappear and become a different person you know back in the day before there was social security numbers and driver's licenses and things like that yeah you could just become a new person if you wanted but now in order to get a job you really do need to have some sort of identification so I am worried about Bailey I'm worried about what may have happened to Bailey and I'm worried about the fact that if she is alive she's probably not just walking free hanging out and enjoying her life there has been rumors that she's been traffic there's been rumors that she is being held somewhere I don't know once again all of these things are rumors just things that people have said over the years but I would definitely feel better if I knew where she was or if she's alive or dead I'm sure her mother would feel better as well and just imagine the shock of being Bailey's mother and thinking that this whole time she was you know just a part of these mysterious circumstances disappearances the other two people that disappeared around the same time as her end up dead and Bailey is still missing and of course is a mother you're gonna think my daughter's not alive any longer and you're gonna wonder what happened to her what does she go through before she died and then to find that all this time she's been involved like it's it's like reliving it and having that shock and that horror and that pain all over again so we really do need to be I think compassionate for everybody involved except for Matthew Queen because like I said indisputably a really bad guy all around no questions about this we're not on the fence about it but I do want to know more about what Bailey's role was before I make my decision and you know whether or not I'm just gonna slam the gavel down on her and throw her in the same boat as Matthew Queen now ABC News in Bakersfield did just post this article it says court documents show Micah Holson bake sold and manufactured in ar-15 it also details a connection to Bailey despot along with her ex boyfriend Matthew Queen according to the district attorney despot and queen helped Micah Hulse and Baker generate the plan and execute a gun sale in March of 2018 according to the investigators they uncovered Queen had the equipment and ability to manufacture the ar-15 that Holtz and make himself actually sold grammar wise this is a very poorly written article so if I'm stumbling over my words it's just because I'm trying to put them where they should naturally be according to investigators they uncovered Queen had the equipment and ability to manufacture the ar-15 and that Holson baked himself actually sold it the papers also state Bailey despot said she was the one who would advertised the gun sale documents also show a what point investigators believe plans might have changed and include the murder of wholesome bake matthew van de Castille according to the court records is the man despot and queen asked to use his garage to extort and extract information of Mahal's and bake officials also believe the garage location is where Queen despot and van de Castille ultimately tortured and killed wholesome bake I mean sometimes they spell Micah's last name wrong and they spell it right later so I think this was maybe typed up hurriedly till I get it out and be first but we all know how that goes Thursday we spoke to Bailey despots mother Jane parent who said she was shocked by the news but that this new development would not change the relationship she built with the other mothers who are considered the Baker's field three moms according to parent her daughter Bailey despot was charged in another gun case in 2017 but that her daughter despot took the fall for Queen in that case parents said Bailey went to court regarding the gun case and that Bailey told her it didn't go well parents said her daughter despot had disappeared a short time later like I said man Matthew Queen bad guy so that's all we know for now when the preliminary hearing happens I'll be paying attention to see if we have some more information but until then this is kind of where we leave it but I would really really hope and like for the Bakersfield police to reinvestigate into the death of James I do want to give a quick shout-out I got a comment on the Suzanne Moore few video and it's from Amy Glatt and it says can Steph fans help bump this comment up for her to see I'm a single mother and my son and his friends loved her they all graduated at the top of their class with scholarships but because of Cole but they couldn't walk the stage they got zero recognition they are so sweet it's not even I'm complaining it's me those are my babies my kids and they would be thrilled if Stephanie would give them a shout-out class of 2020 barb High School barb barb a Barbie Oh guys I'm just gonna say barb barb High School Lake Charles Louisiana Oh barb is pronounced like barbed wire barbed wire Oh barbed wire I get it yeah I need more sleep in coffee so I was right the first time very rare circumstance in my life where I pronounced something correctly the first time so shout out to the class of 2020 barb high school I am who's so devastated I feel so bad for these kids who have through 12 years of school right 12 years of school and they're just looking forward to that day they graduate they get to throw their hats up in the air and have this amazing speech and feel motivated and ready to take on the world and this year the people who graduated in 2020 the kids who graduate in 2020 that was taken from them and it's incredibly sad I feel so horrible I've been thinking that for months and you know just really upset so hopefully when all of this wraps up and we're back to normal they all can have some sort of graduation parties but congratulations for graduating at the top of your class you are gonna do amazing in life this is a temporary setback and in a couple of years when you're out there in the world going to college learning new things meeting new people it'll just be a very faraway memory I'm really proud of everyone honestly everyone who has had to sacrifice or miss a life occasion during this time because I think everybody's handling it very well very very well thank you guys so much for being here with me listening to me ramble I think I did I did ramble and go off topic a little bit in this video but like I said this case kind of got to me in a way so I appreciate you guys for hanging in there with me thank you so much stay kind and stay beautiful stay safe always I love you and I'll see you next time [Applause] [Music] now Nevada's going straight down [Music] [Music]

Channel: Stephanie Harlowe

Views: 216,739

Rating: 4.9242291 out of 5

Keywords: bakersfield 3, bakersfield three, stephanie harlowe, true crime, mystery, missing, baylee despot, micah holsonbake, james kulstad, matthew queen

Id: kA1Wi_JBUFs

Length: 34min 50sec (2090 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020