Season 9, Episode 5
Cassie
Age: 22
Location: Coral Springs, Florida
Addicted to: Oxycodone, crack
What’s Memorable: The horrible Costa Rican and Jamaican “modification camps” her father sent her to as a teen.
Official synopsis: Cassie, 22, is a crack and oxycodone addict who was abandoned by her mother and raised by her father and his string of wives. At 13, she was sent to an overseas behavior modification school that offered her little more than imprisonment and abuse. She escaped into a life of drugs and had a baby she couldn’t care for. Now she’s turned to prostitution to pay for her drugs, and her father enables her addiction while the rest of the family wonders how to keep her from dying.
Original Air Date: January 2011
Interventionist: Candy
Just watched Cassies episode on LMN. Saw it along time ago when it was originally on A&E. LMN or A&E should really do an update series. Always hope for the best in all cases and find it haunting in a way not to know. Cassies story was heart-wrenching and I hope she is well.
Yes this woman is/was an addict but the show was way too short to ever be able to get into the severe damage , deaths , abuse and horrors that Tranquility Bay and WWASP’s did and still do to those forced to go . I beg anybody who reads this to please study WWASP Deaths/Abuse to understand what Cassie was subjected to .
I know she had problems before but dumping a troubled child in a facility reigned by abuse and terror was no way to help . The fact that the facility never wanted the parents around and made them go to cult like training was a hint a how harmful they were . Many of these places have been closed down or under scrutiny for the last decade yet the suicides , deaths from abuse and sexual abuse continues .
I hope Cassie heals , finds a way to find peace , love herself and be sober . She never seemed to stand a chance and being sent to Hell on Earth was never going to help .
yes, the aspect of her aloof father sending her away to that atrocious place was intensely sad. it seemed like she was destined to suffer, which is why it haunts me in a way not knowing her outcome. my heart just deeply hurt for her and I could only hope she is doing ok.
Yes, its true. I was sent to one of these WWASP schools and the terror, humiliation and abuse endured is not an exaggeration. I feel so sorry for Cassie, she got sent to the 2 toughest schools. I hope she is ok and overcame the horrible treatment that these schools put her through.
Cassie deserved so much better.
https://m.facebook.com/cassandra.caravella
That’s a link to her Facebook, looks like she’s doing alright based on her public posts! Good for her, her story was very sad.
Yep, looks like she’s studying to be a drugs & alcohol counselor – good luck & godspeed Cassie!
I know her personally. She is selling all sorts of drugs. Probably using, too, based off of her recent behavior. She told me she won’t feel guilty about it when I confronted her about it.
If u know her personally then pray for her she has endured too much for any one person.
She does look terrible from recent FB pictures I as well know her personally.
You are a beautiful person Cassie, many people are praying for you!
Be strong I’ll thinking about you
She lives in my town now and has reverted back to doing/selling drugs.
“You can keep selling your soul out of that motel room but that’s not what you’re supposed to be doing. What you’re supposed to be doing is getting clean and sober in a beautiful place so you can be the goddamn mother you’re supposed to be!”
This is why I love Candy Finnigan. She tells it like it is and straight from the heart.
Hello,
I just saw this episode for the first time. Is the above Facebook-link correct? It seems to belong to another person(?))
I would really like to know how Cassie is doing.
Thanks.
Caro
It’s correct. Scroll down her page and you’ll see her father on their too. That’s him too.
I’ve seen her episode and it was terribly heartbreaking what her father did to her. She clearly had early trauma of her mother leaving then her father sending her to those horrible boot camps . So you take a young girl with abandonment issues and early childhood trauma and then just throw her away like that ? Her father should be absolutely ashamed of himself . He seemed more like a teenager she knew in high school rather than her father . He seemed like he wanted to just give her $$$$ and that is how he showed her he loved her . Parents unfortunately Do do that . During my own parents divorce my mother showered me with presents out of guilt . So I can relate to Cassie on that . He seemed more interested in partying and his own social life . So naturally after she gets back to the states she is further traumatized from PTSD from the boot camp naturally she falls into a life of drugs and prostitution. The grandfather was right , she was tossed around she should’ve been with her family . Then the scariest thing is she wanted nothing to do with her son Travis. She didn’t even want to hold him . She was abandoning him like her mother did do her . That was the absolute most heartbreaking part of the episode for me that affected me more then the fact that she was selling her body to strangers out of the hotel room for her drug money $ I looked her profile up on Facebook. She looks amazing and Looks like She is working her program and completely sober so that is wonderful. And she is in a relationship with a very nice looking man . She lives In Rhode Island And seems to have a great relationship with her father and it looks like she has completely forgiven him and moved on . However despite all what is glowing and seems happy AGAIN there is absolutely no photos or any Mention of her Son Travis who was profiled in her episode. Not even by Cassie’s father ( the grandfather of Travis ) . I find that very unsettling. However perhaps the father of the child in the episode was awarded full custody of him . However the fact that her entire life is on display on fb her son is not even mentioned makes me question ? Did she ultimately give him up despite obtaining seemingly a sober life ? Perhaps we will never Know . In any event though I am happy she has found her rainbow at the end of a long and very scary storm.
I had a look at her Facebook too and find it odd that she drinks alcohol with her father, who was the one who contacted the show initially. I know it’s not her drug of choice (per se) but it seems like a recipe for disaster.
Also not a fan of her (shared) remarks on the death of George Floyd, one of the reasons being he was a “criminal” and a “drug addict”. If anyone is an authority on drug addiction and criminal activity, its Cassie.
Ugh. Sorry to say but that makes me really despise her. Way to project your own bullshit. But I suppose this isn’t time or place for police reform discussion.
Police aren’t judge and jurors, our bill of rights guarantee due process. Cops don’t just get to kill people and dig up their past to justify it. Urrrh
^^ yup. Especially coming from someone like Cassie.. bro. lol.
My thoughts exactly 🙄🙄🙄
Her FB page says that she is expecting a baby in February and also got engaged the same day. She looks really good.
I saw her fb page she looks good and is pregnant and engaged. Does anyone know if she got her son Travis back??? I really hope so if she is recovered.
Man, that girl is broken. Poor her. The scene when she held her son… she looked so emotionally disconned. Hope she’s fine.
Her father seems to be such an immature person in many ways including not going to treatment.
Candy Finnigan disapointed me when she said that Cassie was crazy. That was her ego talking because Cassie told her to f*** off caused she didn’t know shit about the reform schools.
PS : sorry for the grammatical mistakes in my previous message!
She looks like she is doing great now! It looks her dad finally married someone great, who has provided Cassie with the mother figured she always needed. Cassie shared a lot of appreciation posts for her stepmother..
How does the “what’s memorable” omit the entire intervention? I’ve never seen such a spoiled, immature display of anger. I hope she is doing okay today. I know she experienced a lot of trauma, but wow was she cold.
I’m so happy that she has finally found sobriety, love, peace, security, and a close and loving relationship with her father and her mother (her stepmother, but she calls her mother because she is her mother). Look at her Facebook page and look at the comments that she sends to her mother on Mother’s Day and her father on his birthday. She
Is engaged and looks so happy and healthy! I really felt for her going through so much trauma for most of her life… the abandonment issues from her mother, and then from her father and the PTSD from tranquility bay… I’m sure that drugs helped to numb all that pain… But she still felt some of the pain, as she wanted to die. I’m just so happy that she’s finally loving to live! My prayers and thoughts are with her and her family! ❤️
The way the episode ended with Cassie clearly getting a lot of energy from her experience in treatment really won me over to the episode. It was great to hear her counselors say they were amazed by her progress and willingness to do the work. When I came on here though and looked for updates on her, including her Facebook, it just left me with a really bad feeling. Why doesn’t her Facebook show anything about her son Travis? Everything seems to be about her new baby and fiancé. It felt super off.
Also did anyone else think the storytelling in this episode was really poorly done? I was left wondering “does she have any contact with her mom? Has she ever since the abandonment? Is this actually her dad? What was the relationship between her dad and mom?” There were way too many unanswered questions.
I am also amazed that Dizzy’s “what’s memorable” left out so much of what was memorable. What about the mafioso-esque family members storming out of the intervention? That one guy I don’t know of he was her uncle or grandfather was a dead ringer for Phil Leotardo. Also what about Cassie finally agreeing to rehab after her dad cancelled the upcoming payment for her motel room/den of iniquity?
I watched a documentary recently about the Troubled Teen Industry(aka places where kids were legally kidnapped and taken to) It’s a horrible industry that unfortunately is still thriving today. Back in the 2000s it made sense parents would fall victim because the internet wasn’t wildly used. Parents are still at fault for what they did. The abuse these teens suffered is a true tragedy. My heart hurts for Cassie. It bothers me that her family didn’t step in more to save her from her father. That picture of her at 3 years old after she was abandoned by her mother haunts me. You can see at such a young age her soul is broken. I agree with other commenters I wish they provided more context…was her father married or dating her mother? They just said she was Korean American and abandoned her? I mean I assume Dominick is the father obviously but I hate that they didn’t explicitly state that. She was doomed to fail from the start. I wish there was more of an update on her. I wish her well, and I hope desperately that her son is doing okay. As we know with two addicts for parents the odds are stacked against him. I HIGHLY recommend the documentary on Netflix regarding the place Cassie was sent to as a teen. It’s called Hell Camp
This intervention was wild whew!!!! The whole family lost it!!! But the dad “I’m going too, California baby!” Made me laugh sorry 😅 then he didn’t go! I’m really surprised that she got sent to those horrible camps instead of going to one of the family members, Italians normally like the family to stick together.. so good to see her still doing well but do agree with what others have said about her son Travis, especially considering he was so young when this happened.