Do we have new potential suspects in the Cassie Compton disappearance case?

I wrote about this case once before. The first time I wrote about it (click that link if you want to read it), I speculated that Dustin Blackwell was the potential suspect — just based on stuff I had been reading or seeing online. (I want to make it clear that I don’t know any of these people face-to-face or anything.) If you click that link, you’ll see there’s a couple of comments — scroll down — from Dustin’s wife and Dustin’s mother. Now, online you never know for sure if someone is who they say they are, so take everything with a grain of salt — but they seem to be defending Dustin as a potential suspect.

Cassie Compton’s been missing about six months now — there was semi-recently a balloon release for her — and I think one of the reasons this case resonated with me more than some other cases I write about is because it almost seems like she never had a chance. There are claims around potential mental illness/health concerns, and potentially an abusive stepfather; you can see that all information here.

There haven’t really been breaks in this case — this article, from December, says about as much as articles published in April — but there are a handful of theories online and in different message board communities. Here’s a semi-summary of them. Remember: everything on the Internet requires a degree of skepticism.

Here are the names you need to have some awareness of:

• Dustin Blackwell (mentioned in the first post I linked above)
• Hunter Smith
• Brandon Rhodes
• Adam something-something

You can read a lot of information here, and here’s a breakdown of who these people are:

• Blackwell: Potential love interest
• Smith: Ditto
• Brandon Rhodes: Stepfather
• Adam something something: Classmate, apparently

The core issues of this case seem to hinge on a few facts:

• Where was Cassie on the night — and 1-2 nights before — her disappearance? (Did she stay at home, etc.?)
• On the night of her final eventual disappearance, did she come home? 
• Is there a chance Brandon Rhodes is involved — which a lot of people might instantly assume given the new comments from the mother — or did he have an alibi for that evening?
• What would be the motivation for harming/hurting/abducting her?

You could see this as similar to the Heather Elvis case; maybe Cassie was thought to “come between” some existing couple and “something had to be done.” (Sadly, people think like that all the time.)

Sadly, these types of cases — where there are broader ties to poverty and illness and abuse — don’t tend to get any attention from the mainstream media, because the concept is “Oh, that’s sad but you know, it’s not surprising…” I’d love for this to get more information. If you have any ideas about Cassie Compton or the final days before her disappearance, drop a comment.