Caitlin Tressler, 36, vanished from her home on Web Street near Linwood on March 27. Nobody reported her missing until April 2. That’s a six-day window, and the Detroit Police Department is now investigating what happened inside it, including what its own officers did and didn’t do when they responded to the address before she disappeared.
Her boyfriend has been named a person of interest. He hasn’t been charged. Police won’t release his name.
Here’s what happened. Neighbors called 911 about a violent argument at Tressler’s home. Officers responded. What followed, according to the department’s own account, was a welfare check that ended without an arrest, without any documented injury, and without Tressler ever stepping outside to speak with police face to face.
“We made contact with Ms. Tressler through a window, an open window, where she spoke with police,” said Major Crimes Unit Commander Rebecca McKay. “We also made contact with the male inside. At some point, officers determined that there was no threat, and the decision was made to clear the run and notate their findings.”
They cleared the run. Then Tressler was gone.
The department isn’t defending that outcome. McKay confirmed to reporters that the response is now under formal review.
“There is an internal investigation looking into the procedures that were taken on that particular day,” McKay said.
What makes that review especially important is a photograph. Larissa Moore, a close friend of Tressler’s, had been in contact with her in the days before she went missing. Moore recently went back through her text messages looking for anything she might have overlooked.
“The other day, I’m going through all my messages just to see like if I missed anything in that picture, like lo and behold, shows up and you could see her face was, was badly injured,” Moore said. “It was sent at about 3:58 a.m. on March 27.”
March 27. The same morning Tressler was last seen alive. Whether the officers who responded to Web Street that day saw any visible injuries on her face, the department hasn’t said. That omission is almost certainly part of what investigators are now examining.
The boyfriend’s movements after the argument are known. Neighbors told police he loaded a U-Haul truck and left Detroit the day after the reported altercation. Investigators tracked down and recovered that truck. They won’t say where it was found or where the man is now, only that they’ve spoken with him since he left town.
Three separate well-being checks came after the initial domestic violence call. The Missing Persons Unit eventually took over the case, executed a search warrant at Tressler’s home, and searched her vehicles. Investigators have also combed the neighborhood around Linwood, the same stretch of blocks where she’d lived before she went missing.
McKay said the investigation is drawing on technological resources and outside agency support. She didn’t name any of those agencies specifically. What she made clear was that her unit considers this case active and serious.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, domestic violence is a factor in a significant portion of missing persons cases where the outcome is fatal. Data from the Missing persons cases involving domestic violence compiled by the National Domestic Violence Hotline puts the lethality risk in sharper context. Every day without answers matters.
WXYZ (7 Action News) first reported the boyfriend’s designation as a person of interest, and Action News has continued to follow the family’s attempts to get answers from the department.
Moore didn’t mince words when asked if she believes the boyfriend is responsible for Tressler’s disappearance. “I do, yeah, I do.”
Tressler is 36 years old. She’s been missing for weeks. Police have 256 active missing persons cases in Detroit according to department figures, but the circumstances here, the documented argument, the photo sent before 4 a.m., the boyfriend who loaded a U-Haul and left, put this one in a different category. Anyone with information on Caitlin Tressler’s whereabouts can contact the Detroit Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit directly.
