From a young age, Casey had expressed a keen interest in physical sports. Always climbing something, hard to separate from the playground equipment, Casey was an energetic and athletic youth from the time she could walk. Her parents sought to channel her activity from climbing on the furniture and jumping off the cabinets to something more constructive: gymnastics and rhythmic dance.

By the time she was 18 she had already competed at a national level, and her family saw gold in her future. Her mother always pushed her to reach higher, work harder, and never allowed her to quit - and sometimes, Casey did want to quit. Gymnastics was hard, got harder the taller and older you were, and Casey had always been gangly, her mother insisting she was just "willowy". But no matter how high she climbed, she trained and competed for the joy of the activity, the exuberance of expression that tumbling and rhythmic dance provided.

When she graduated high school, her family revealed their graduation present: six months of training in Russia, with a top level coach who was known for having produced gold medal athletes. She would be joining a group of girls her age in Berlin and taking the long journey via express train to Moscow as a teambuilding exercise. But first, she would spend a few weeks staying with relatives in Norway.

Her relatives owned a farm in the countryside near Nyheim. Cousins who hadn't emigrated to America when Casey's great-grandparents had, the two families had remained in contact through the years trading letters and Christmas presents. Facebook had made it easier, and Casey had grown up virtually alongside them. She had wanted to visit since she'd first seen pictures of the beautiful snowy woods and their adorable farm animals, but there had never been the time to travel just for fun with her competitions and training. She was overjoyed with the news, beyond excited to finally meet her cousins and ride their horse.

The few weeks she was able to spend as a tourist in Norway were like an enchantment, something she would never forget. All the better to have a sweet memory to take into times of great pain.

She was still in Norway when the lockdowns began and travel was banned. At first she and her family made light of things; it would just be a couple months before things were back to normal... She was a little sad she would have to reschedule her trip to Russia, but she was still confident she would be able to go - right up until people started going crazy.

When things began to turn bad in Norway and it became clear she wasn't going to be able to meet up with her team, she tried to keep in contact with her family online as much as possible - but the situation in the States was even worse, and she could only watch helplessly as they spiraled into disease and unrest. When social media was cut off Casey was forced to face an uncertain and unhappy future, alone in a foreign country.

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At first glance Casey is on the tall side for a woman, and slender with a narrow frame. She has a leanly muscled figure, evidence of her training. Her skin is pale with light freckles all over. Her hair is shoulder length with a wavy texture with a tendency to curl at the ends, somewhat wispy and flyaway. A sandy color between brown and blonde, her eyebrows are only a shade darker than her hair. Her eyes are a light golden-green hazel, seeming almost yellow in some lights. She has a somewhat long face with a tall nose and a square jaw, which gives her a slight masculine affect to her features.