Kala Brown and Charlie Carver have not been seen or heard from since late August. Photo / Facebook
Kala Brown and Charlie Carver have not been seen or heard from since late August. Photo / Facebook
SIX weeks ago, Charlie Carver, 32, and his girlfriend Kala Brown, 30, seemingly vanished into thin air.
Friends and family say the pair left their clothes, prescription medicine and Ms Brown's pet dog without food or water at their Anderson, South Carolina apartment.
Ms Brown's contact lenses and glasses hadbeen left behind, along with her car, which remained in the complex carpark.
The only things missing were Carver's laptop and his car, a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. Police have put an alert out for the vehicle but it has yet to be recovered.
"This is a mother's nightmare. It was not a planned trip," Carver's mother Joanne Shiflet said.
"Their little dog was left there. Personal items that you would have taken with you on a trip were left there. To me, that just doesn't say: 'I'm leaving for a month'."
Ms Brown's family say she treated her Pomeranian "like it was her baby" and would never let the animal to starve.
Police are still trying to establish exactly when the couple went missing but it appears the last time anyone saw or heard from them was on August 31, when Carver was caught on CCTV leaving his workplace and Ms Brown "briefly communicated with a friend".
The couple had only recently moved in together after dating for several months over the summer following Carver's split from his wife, from whom he has reportedly filed for divorce.
Around two weeks after the couple disappeared, Charlie's family say they started noticing some activity on Carver's Facebook account.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE MYSTERIOUS FACEBOOK POSTS
Friends of Kala Brown (above) and Charlie Carver have bombarded Mr Carver's account with messages accusing the missing man's wife of harming the couple and taking over his account. Photo / Facebook
But their relief quickly turned to confusion when it became apparent that it wasn't Carver behind the mysterious posts.
Milestones started appearing: a July 1 post stating he and Ms Brown were expecting a daughter; an August 1 post announcing they'd bought a house and on September 1, an update informing the world they'd gotten married.
The problem was, all of these events had been logged retroactively on October 1 - more than a month after anyone had seen or heard from the couple.
To the family's horror, the posts kept coming. Memes heavy with innuendo appeared in Carver's timeline: "I wonder if I said hello, how many people would say it back? Lets try it. Hello!" said one posted on September 24.
Another which appeared the same day was more sinister: "Sometimes late at night I dig a hole in the backyard to keep the nosey neighbours guessing", prompting one user to remark: "Is that what you did to the real Kala and the real Charlie????"
This meme appears to be a veiled warning to friends, family and even complete strangers accusing whomever has taken over Mr Carver’s account of harming the couple. Photo / Facebook
This meme appeared on Charlie Carver’s timeline three weeks after he and girlfriend Kala Brown vanished. Photo / Facebook
Photo / Facebook
And whoever was controlling the account was sharing and "liking" the missing pages set up by the couple's families, including a Go Fund Me campaign by Brown's family to raise money for a private investigator.
Other posts were riddled with spelling and grammatical errors Carver's family say the 32-year-old writer would never make. However, there were certain idiosyncrasies that looked familiar to friends and relatives.
Habitual mistakes such as "dose" for "does" and "are" instead of "our" were something they recognised in posts made by Carver's estranged wife.
In at least one comment that came from the missing man's account, the poster asks how another poster knew "my hubby,".
In others, the mystery poster admits "this is not Charlie or Kala" but fails to state their identity.
As a result, friends family and even complete strangers have bombarded Carver's account with accusations that his ex-wife has kidnapped or even killed the pair.
The ex-wife has not responded to the allegations but many users have posted screenshots of posts she made from her own account that were "liked" by Carver's account weeks after he officially vanished.
One post from Carver's account read: "It's never going to end they are not coming be to there families."
But according to the missing man's brother, Nathan Shiflet, "He wouldn't post nothing like that.
"They've got his password to his Facebook, so whoever it is, they know him personally."
Their mother agrees. "That grammar and the spelling would not come from my son. That's not him," Shiflet said.
Last week an Anderson Police Department spokesman told a press conference they were continuing to investigate the couple's disappearance and had not ruled out foul play.
Shiflet told investigators her son was in the habit of calling her every day and that he would never have willingly cut off contact with his family.
In the meantime, the bizarre standoff between the missing couple's loved ones and the mystery person operating his account continues.
