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The Bakersfield 3 case gripped Bakersfield, California, in 2018 when three young adults—Micah Holsonbake, Baylee Despot, and James Kulstad—met tragic fates within 34 days.
Holsonbake vanished, Kulstad was murdered, and Baylee Despot disappeared, their lives intertwined through drugs and crime. Baylee Despot, then 20, has been missing since April 25, 2018, and is a key figure in Holsonbake’s murder, with an active arrest warrant for her role.
The case led the trio's mothers, Cheryl Holsonbake, Jane Parrent, and Diane Byrne, to demand justice, resulting in the establishment of the Bakersfield 3 Charity. The whole case is captured in The Bakersfield 3: A Tale of Murder and Motherhood, a three-part upcoming docuseries directed by Amy Berg. The first part airs on Investigation Discovery (ID) on May 11, 2025, at 8 pm ET.
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The series, based on a 2022 Marie Claire feature, uses interviews, police footage, and court records to explore the case’s complexities, airing episodes back-to-back. As the premiere nears, Despot’s whereabouts remain a haunting mystery.
Who was Baylee Despot, and where is she now?
Baylee Cheyanne Despot was born on June 3, 1997, in Bakersfield, California, to Jane Parrent. As reported by KGET on March 5, 2019, she was raised alongside her sister Katelyn in a middle-class community. She was an animal enthusiast and engaged in the Future Farmers of America program at Frontier High School. Despot aspired to join the Air Force or work as a flight attendant.
However, personal struggles altered her path. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 20. She faced other issues, including a brief marriage in 2017, being s*xually assaulted later that year, and a restraining order against a former boyfriend, as per Charleyproject.
As reported by KGET, Despot and her new boyfriend, Matthew Queen, were arrested in December 2017 for illegal possession of firearms, including an AR-15. Despot pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received three years of probation.
On April 25, 2018, Despot disappeared from Bakersfield’s Palm Avenue area, leaving no trace. She is wanted for murder, kidnapping, torture, and conspiracy in the death of Micah Holsonbake, a fellow Bakersfield 3 member.
As reported by 23ABC, authorities allege she and Queen restrained Holsonbake in a garage, interrogated him over a stolen gun, and then killed and dismembered him. Queen, convicted in 2022, claimed Baylee Despot was the primary aggressor, a narrative prosecutors have challenged.
Jane Parrent believes her daughter may have been coerced by Queen or may have come to harm herself, given their tumultuous relationship. As of May 2025, Baylee Despot’s whereabouts remain unknown, with no confirmed sightings since 2018.
What happened to Matthew Queen?
Matthew Queen, a central figure in the Bakersfield 3 case, faced justice for his role in the 2018 death of Micah Holsonbake. Arrested in July 2019 after a standoff with Bakersfield police, Queen was initially charged with kidnapping and weapons offenses. In May 2020, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office added charges of murder, torture, and conspiracy for Holsonbake’s killing, as per 23ABC.
His trial, which began in April 2022, revealed that he and Baylee Despot allegedly killed Holsonbake in a garage over a stolen gun, dismembering and scattering his remains. Queen admitted to disposing of the body but claimed Despot delivered the fatal blow with a dumbbell. On May 5, 2022, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder, kidnapping, and firearms charges while acquitting him of first-degree murder and torture.
On June 7, 2022, Judge Charles R. Brehmer sentenced him to 30 years to life for murder, plus 56 years for other charges. Queen, now 48, is incarcerated at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility in Corcoran. In February 2023, he appealed the murder conviction, but as of May 2025, there are no updates on the status of that appeal.
Stay tuned for more news and updates.
