Missing Marijuana Farm Employee Turns Up On ‘The Bachelor’

So, a missing marijuana farm employee turns up on ‘The Bachelor’. This isn’t the set up for some legalization era joke. This is a real story that actually happened. Mark Twain once said, “truth is stranger than fiction”. That statement proves absolutely true in this bizarre tale.

Rebekah Martinez

In November 2017, a 22-year-old woman named Rebekah Martinez disappeared. According to various sources, including Humboldt County’s information office Samantha Karges, her mother reported her missing at 1:06 in the morning on November 18th, 2017 after not being in contact with her daughter for a week. According to Karges, Martinez’s mother last heard from her on November 12th. Martinez had allegedly told her mother that she was going to work on a cannabis farm in Humboldt County and that she would see her in “seven to eight days.”

Here’s where the story gets weird. On December 12, 2017, the investigators working on the case asked Martinez’ mother if she had made contact with her daughter. She said she had—the same day she reported her missing. Additionally, Martinez was apparently active on social media during the time when she was supposed to be missing. Still, the police could not contact her, and since direct contact is needed to remove someone from a Missing Persons list, Rebekah Martinez retained her status as a missing person.

A local news outlet, The North Coast Journal, posted Martinez’ photo and Missing Persons report on one of their social media accounts. Their main story was about 35 people who were reported missing in Humboldt County. A follower of the Journal recognized Martinez from Instagram. The Journal contacted the police with the information. The police were eventually able to make contact with Martinez and took her off the Missing Persons list.

Martinez wasn’t missing at all. She had been filming the popular romance reality show ‘The Bachelor’.

Final Hit: Missing Marijuana Farm Employee Turns Up On ‘The Bachelor’

Perhaps the most bizarre part of this case is the role that social media played. Rebekah Martinez made a post on her Instagram page on September 17th informing her followers, which presumably included her family and friends, that she would not be able to be reached by phone or by social media for a few weeks. After all, you can’t have access to those things while filming most reality shows. She picked up her social media presence on November 23rd.

So why did her mother report her missing? And why did her mother seem to think she was going to work on a cannabis farm, when it’s not clear if Martinez was ever actually in the industry? After Martinez was removed from the Missing Persons list and various news outlets began reporting on it, she tweeted something that would imply that her mother did, in fact, know what she was doing:

Martinez also tweeted a joke about the police using an unflattering photo of her in their Missing Persons report. This might seem like a flippant response to some. But to be fair, this whole situation was wild for everyone involved; a sense of humor is necessary to move past it.