MISSING: Gregory ‘Keith’ Mann Jr.

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers and I'm Brett and you guys this is a story that I've been wanting to share with you for so long Because I don't know about you, but to me some of the most mysterious cases are the ones where a person just completely Disappears without a trace like those are often the stories that I find myself thinking about in the night when I can't sleep and the Disappearance of Gregory Keith man, Jr. is one of those cases because this was a guy who seemingly has it all 20 years old new apartment a good job of fiance who is about to move in but the night before she gets there Keith told his work friends that he had a secret meeting just after midnight and then he's never seen again Did he get cold feet and just walk away from everything? Did something happen during that meeting? Was the meeting even real and if so, who did he meet? [Music] This case is extra sad when you realized that it was Mother's Day when Keith man's dad and stepmom first realized that he was missing Greg and Deborah were home that Sunday in 1997 when they got a call from their son's fiance Carrie asking if they'd seen Keith They haven't not since late Friday night at least when they were all together over in Gainesville, Texas celebrating Carrie's graduation, but they're almost certain that he got home safe because he had followed them back to which it all falls in his car And he was behind them the whole way right up until they turned on to their street and then his apartment that he had was just like Another two miles up the road Carrie knows that he must have made it to the apartment because she said that she talked to him the next day Which would have been Saturday at like 9.40 p.m He had worked that day and he was planning to go hang out with some friends But she was calling from the apartment and it didn't look like Keith had even been there at all the night before His work clothes were on the floor. His bed didn't look slept in which is really worrisome because it's not like she just dropped in unannounced You see the two 20-year-olds had just recently gotten engaged after 18 months of dating and today was the big day Where Carrie was supposed to be moving in with Keith like this was planned down to the time She told him that she'd be over at their apartment sometime between like 12 and 2 on Sunday So hearing all of this made Greg and Deborah feel uneasy about something they saw that morning on their way to church You see next door to them is another church not the one that they go to but there had been a red Ford Mustang Parked in this one exact spot in the lot that Keith used to always park in Now when Deborah appears out the window she sees the Mustang still there now late into the afternoon on Sunday It is literally parked over the same like old oil stain from Keith's previous car like this was his Yeah, now this car wasn't Keith's but this car had dealership tags on it and Keith had been working at Ron Roberts Ford dealership for like the past couple of months and one of the perks of his job as a salesman Is that if you sell enough cars you get to borrow cars off the lot? So his parents feel pretty sure that this car was at least driven by Keith right? It's in his spot. Yeah, what is super weird about this though is that Keith wasn't supposed to be parking in that spot anymore I guess the church had gotten a new pastor recently and he told Greg that they couldn't park cars there because they've been using that space for like a church van and this was like maybe two weeks ago and Greg made sure that Keith knew so Greg and Deborah decide they need to go check this car out See if there is anything in there that might suggest where Keith is So they walk over to the car and when they get close they can see that the trunk is popped open Now Greg lifts the lid but there's nothing inside the only thing that seems off is that there's this like small panel pushed out along the wall But everything looks clean so Greg shuts the trunk and walks over to try and open the door But all the doors are locked and now that he has shut the trunk there's no way into the car So he just peers in the windows But there's really nothing to see just an empty relatively clean car Now they're sure that this is connected to Keith somehow But they want to give it a minute before they just jump to worst-case scenario So they wait. Carrie comes over waits with them I mean, they all had planned to spend Mother's Day at the family home anyway So if Keith had just like been out doing something maybe he'll come back there But he doesn't for the rest of the day or night and the whole time that Mustang is still sitting in the church parking lot unmoved So Greg calls the police station first thing Monday morning to report his son missing Unfortunately though, the cop who responds doesn't seem nearly as concerned as the man's And when they walk him to the Mustang and kind of explain what's going on The cop kind of just looks at the car and says well doesn't look like a crime scene to me Like Keith's young just give him some time. You're worrying too early Unsure what to do with that, but unwilling to do nothing Keith's parents decide to call Keith's work Maybe someone at the dealership knows what's going on. At least what's going on with the car in nothing else And maybe they can even get them back into the car Now it ends up being like a whole thing because they have to send out a locksmith to even get into the car And even then there is nothing that helps nothing in the glove box or the console The only thing that doesn't belong with the car is a cassette tape like sitting in the player partially ejected Oh, what was the tape? I literally asked but neither Greg nor Deborah can remember all these years later They just recall that it was some kind of rock band something that Keith might have been into nothing that was like a dead giveaway That it wasn't him driving if that makes sense But there was something that seemed to be a dead giveaway. He wasn't driving When the dealership sends a salesman out to pick up the car the guy who arrived is like oh weird I didn't have to move the seat back I always have to move the seat back when Keith borrows a car because at five seven He'd usually sat with the seat pushed up closer to the steering wheel And Deborah says they even asked the locksmith who unlocked the car like if he moved the seat in any way and he said that he didn't And can the dealership actually confirm that Keith was the one who borrowed the car from them? I don't know if they have logs or anything but like yes I mean everyone talks of him taking the car as confirmed fact I just can't tell you how they confirmed it because honestly when we got the files We did a FOIA we got something back but damn near every page was fully blacked out It was one of the worse it was one of the most outrageous reactions I have ever seen like we're still fighting it as if this recording and it is in now the attorney general's hands But anyways, that was a long answer for yes, he is the one who took the car from the dealership But there is real doubt in Greg and Deborah's minds that Keith was the last one to drive the car But since the car doesn't belong to them and police aren't opening an investigation The Mustang just gets taken back to the dealership without any kind of processing or forensic analysis I mean by the time the police actually decide there's something to be suspicious about Like it's gonna be too late to collect anything and like a dealership they're gonna like clean that car Not if Greg can help it, right? Like so the next day Tuesday the 13th, he goes down to the police station and demands that Wichita Falls PD do something And that is when they first assigned someone to Keith's case Now as far as I can tell no one goes running to the dealership asking them to preserve the car still They don't try to get and process the car until after it is sold and like to your point surprise surprise there's nothing there Yeah but the first day a detective is assigned they do go over to Keith's apartment to look around See if anything looks out of the ordinary Carey's not there anymore obviously this rocked her so she didn't want to stay there alone and eventually she moves back home with her parents So the place is empty when police go scope it out But to them there's really nothing to see like it's a little messy He's got his work clothes on the floor like I said Nothing seems missing like he packed up I mean to Greg and Deborah when they saw it looked like he was coming back And from everything people have pieced together about Keith's last night He should have because most of his evening is accounted for and things seemed fine All the way up to the point where he told some friends that he was going to go meet a mystery person When police and Keith's family pieced together Keith's last known movements This is the picture of Saturday night that gets filled in We know at 940 Keith calls Carey and tells her about his plans to go out with one of his co-workers Chris and Chris's girlfriend Michelle Carey knew them from like double dates that they had gone on but I don't think there was like A ton of those as far as Keith's parents know Chris and Keith only knew each other for like a couple of months Like since Keith started working at the dealership Now according to what Chris tells detectives around 10 p.m. Keith left his apartment and hopped in the car with Chris and Michelle Chris was driving a demo car to this black Nissan Pathfinder And there was no big agenda for the night as far as I can tell Just a series of stops like first being at a convenience store. We know that Keith went into the store, bought something, because detectives confirmed that with surveillance footage, and a receipt because Keith used his credit card. Next, the three of them drove over to McDonald's to get some dinner before taking the pathfinder out mudding for a little bit behind Memorial Stadium, which is literally across the road from Keith's apartment. Now, their last stop of the night was at a house party, somewhere out near Lake Wichita. But Chris said that he couldn't remember exactly where they had driven. He didn't know the address. He just was following some directions that someone had given him. And how long after this night is he talking to them? This is like what is a little bit on to me. This is right at the beginning that there's a couple days out. Yeah. Now, we spoke with the current cold case detective assigned to this case detective Whited. And he said the way that he reads the files. Detectives felt like Chris and Michelle weren't holding anything back. So can't Chris just drive them back out to where the party was? So this is my thing. I would assume if they asked, but the problem is I don't know if they asked him to or if they thought that this party was important. All I know is that they left the party at a certain time because they had to get Keith back to his apartment by midnight because Keith said that he had a meeting with someone at 12 15 a.m. That is all he said. Now, Keith's parents told us that when Chris tried to push and ask him, like, who are you meeting? Who meets someone at 12 15? Yeah. Apparently Keith just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. So Chris kind of assumed that Keith was maybe like meeting up with a girl or something. And maybe he didn't want to involve Chris and Michelle because they now knew his fiancee that was about to move in. And at least this is what he thought at the time, but now he's not so sure. Now Chris says before they dropped Keith off, they ran by the car wash near Keith's place to get the mud off the Nissan. That would have been around 1130. And then sometime between 11 45 and 12, they dropped Keith off at his apartment. Both Chris and Michelle say that they watched Keith walk towards his apartment, but they didn't actually see him go in. And that is the last time that anyone saw Keith. So who's the last person to see Keith that isn't Chris and Michelle? I guess the people at the party, but this is why I would love to know if they figured out where that was, if they tracked those people down, we don't know. And listen, Chris acts like he's got nothing to hide. He agrees to take a polygraph, which he passes. Here's what I don't get though. Because Chris passes the poly, detectives don't feel like it's necessary to have Michelle take a polygraph. And listen, like we know how reliable polygraphs are, I wouldn't take one. Okay, but that logic doesn't add up. I know. You can't pass a poly for both of them. Like do they at least get a statement from Michelle like individually? Yes. Like probably under all the like black ink in the like file that we got. Great. Regardless detectives don't think that Chris is suspicious, not then and not now. And really even in the early days, neither did Keith's family. Deborah told our reporter that her initial theory was that Keith got cold feet. Like with an engagement and carry moving in, maybe it was just like happening too fast for him. So she wondered if maybe he packed up to live with his bioman in New Mexico because he had lived with her like until right before high school, like he only moved to Texas because the school that his dad or like the district that his dad lived in had like a really good baseball program. But Greg on the other hand said that he never believed the cold feet theory and really detectives don't either. For one, Greg and Deborah have been in touch with Keith's mom over the years. So they like no Keith didn't have there. And two, biggest one to me is that Keith had two commission checks waiting for him on the Monday after he disappeared. And he knew that they were coming because he had just sold two cars during his last shift. And he had money still in his bank account that was never withdrawn. So if you're gonna go away on your own, you need cash. Money is a really helpful thing to like get you a head start, right? Now, back in 1997, detectives interviewed at least 100 people, anyone that Keith would across paths with. His friends, his family, co-workers, everyone, but nothing helpful came from it. And I'm not kidding when I say nothing. Normally, this would be the part where I lay out all the different theories for you. But there aren't even solid theories in this case. There are some rumors that have swirled around town that like maybe Keith got involved with the Texas Mexican Mafia, but like those were pretty far fetched and never substantiated. Other rumors centered around the idea that maybe there was some kind of like drug deal gone wrong or maybe Keith was involved in gambling. But it doesn't seem like any of these are born from anything real. These theories all seem to kind of come out of nowhere when people are like, I don't know what could have happened. Like what if this? Maybe that. Just throwing anything out there. Yeah, because they cannot think of anything that makes any actual sense. But here's the thing I will say about all the rumors and speculation. A lot of them do seem to include one similar detail about the Ron Roberts dealership that Keith worked for. Back in 1997, they had a new location being built just up the road from Keith's apartment, like less than a mile and a half away. Construction was in progress when Keith went missing in May. And something that keeps getting thrown out, something that Keith's parents do believe is that Keith is either buried there under concrete or buried somewhere else under concrete somewhere around town. But as far as I'm aware, there was no search or excavation and the dealership got built and is still there. Okay, am I just reaching here or does it feel like something like something has to be connected to the dealership here right? You have like the car you have he's with. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I kind of feel the same way too. But I also know something that you don't. One of the very few things that for some reason wasn't redacted from the case file we got was a mention of a recorded jail call from a guy named Gary Price. And this call happened 10 years after Keith went missing in 2007. So I didn't, I don't know who this guy is, whatever we pulled a report on Gary. And it turns out, you know, you might not be surprised to learn there are a few Gary Price is out there in the world. Right, right. But there was one that stood out from the rest. One whose former employer was Ron Roberts for dealership. Ding, ding, ding, bingo. You got it. This dude has a long rap sheet. It turns out, Gary committed a couple of robberies at two different pharmacies, both in and around Wichita Falls. That was 20 years before Keith goes missing like in the late 70s. Robbery is like a snatching grab type of thing. Not exactly. So according to the Times record news, Gary held the Bifarmacy clerk in Berk, Burnett, Texas in mid September 1978. Like he took the clerk hostage until the pharmacist arrived. And then the clerk even helped a customer while he was there. Oh, once the pharmacist got there, Gary tied them both up, taped their mouths, and robbed them. But he was caught two hours later in Oklahoma by highway patrol officers with a gun, drugs, and money. Now he was arrested, but released shortly after I'm assuming, because at the beginning of January 1979, he robbed another pharmacy. Oh, and after getting caught for that, he pled guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. But according to Wichita County Sheriff's Office jail records, Gary was out by 1991 being arrested for possession of controlled substances. Then he's getting arrested again in late 1995 for assault. And literally the next day, he is back in jail for a parole violation, but out again by mid 1996. Now our reporter asked Keith's parents if the name Gary Price rang a bell. And sure enough, Debra remembers him working at the dealership, but she didn't know much more than that. Detective White had confirmed for us that Gary was working as a mechanic at Ron Robertsford in 1997. He told us that Gary popped up on the detective's radar in Keys case because employees that worked with him had come forward saying that they didn't think he was a very honest individual, and he had a quick temper. And so with all the speculation and rumors that Keith may have been involved in gambling or like potential drugs, Gary was someone who like fit that bill for being involved, not with him, but with the same things, right? Same world, which is why they wanted to go talk to him initially. And Gary was a person of interest in the initial investigation, and for a little while after that, according to Detective White. But the recorded jail call didn't happen until May 2007, and that's because at that time Texas Rangers were I guess reviewing Keith's case, and just like re-interviewing subjects. Detective White had said at one point, didn't have the exact date, in their investigation, Gary agreed to come in and take a polygraph, but they never nailed down a time, and he never followed through. Great. Ultimately, nothing more came up in the police records about Gary. That you can see. That I can see accurate, but that is also what the detective said to us. So I'm assuming they never found anything that connected him to the disappearance. I guess my biggest question is did Keith actually know Gary, or like was there anything connecting them, aside from both of them working at the same dealership, like at the same time? Gary's a mechanic, right? And Keith is selling cars. They aren't like both mechanics, both salesmen, not working inside. by side, they're just like in the same general area, like at the same time. No, I get what you're saying. And like when they interviewed Gary, he said he'd seen Keith of the dealership, but he never claimed that he hung out with him or anything like that. So there does not seem to be any like real connection. So it seemed. But either he didn't tell police everything in 2007 or what he said exactly has been lost to time or his story has changed because guess who we got on the phone while reporting for the story. It was not a long call, but Gary wanted to set the record straight. He told our reporter Taylor Day that he actually left Ron Robertsford before Keith started working there. And he said that it was his son Jeremy, who knew Keith and was around his age. Jeremy actually worked, he said, in the same mechanic stalls that Gary had before. And Gary said that Keith would go back and talk to Jeremy all the time. He said that he thinks the Texas Rangers dropped the ball on their investigation and just latched on to him because he had a record. And the worst part to Gary is that they apparently never even talked to Jeremy about Keith's disappearance. Wait, did he tell them to? No, I don't think he was on friendly terms with them back then if you can imagine. Also, I don't think he was necessarily even saying to us now that his son should have been like suspected. I think he was just pointing out how little they did if they didn't even talk to his son. He says the only rumor he ever heard was that Keith's disappearance was related to some gambling deaths at a Dallas. Right, but he's still making it seem like his son really knew Keith. I know, but I don't know how well. And like he gave us a number for Jeremy and our reporter tried it, but if that is the right number, we have not heard back from him. We tried going back to Detective Whitehead about Jeremy and all of this. He didn't say much about Jeremy, but he said that we should take whatever Gary says with the grain of salt, because the one thing we did ask about was like, you know, Gary says he's not working there at the time. And he said, no, for a fact, he was. So I don't know. I don't know what to think about Gary. I don't know what to think about Jeremy. And I think that's part of the problem with this case, like it feels to me like it's cold because we know so little, but I'll say it doesn't seem as cold as it could be. Like I know it still has the attention of the department. In fact, it was someone who used to work with Wichita Falls PD who suggested this case to me. And I know there's still running down leads when they come in. In September of 2020, Deborah found this post on Facebook about this American man living on the streets of Mexico, and this man was thought to have some kind of mental health issues. Maybe he spent some time in a hospital after being hit by a car. And honestly, there was a picture of this guy and there was a pretty close resemblance between him and an aged enhanced picture Nick McMade of Keith like in his 40s. And the Wichita Falls PD ran with this. They tracked this guy down and did DNA testing, but it wasn't Keith. And then the next year, I know in 2021, they did a whole excavating project locally for I assume Keith's remains. And this is at the dealership? No, this is the weird part. In the police records, there is one very specific address on Southwest Parkway, which is a half mile from Keith's apartment. And on Google Maps, if you look it up, you just see like a dirt lot with a broken down sign. It used to be an old car wash oil change business, whatever. But I guess it kept like flooding and so it was eventually abandoned. And right before demo happened, detectives went in to do the search, like, oh, now's the perfect time. But for the life of me, I can't tell you why. And I'm not sure if the detective was holding something back or they just like searched it for searching. Because they could before the demo happened, like it was just like there. But like, I, I don't know. I've worked with a lot of police departments and like, they don't just like search for nothing. The one thing that like I keep coming that like just rings a little bell in my mind is that mention that Chris had of going to the car wash before dropping that's literally where my mind went. Like was this the car wash? I don't know if that was the car. That was the car. Again, they're still. They're still really clear that they do not think that Chris is suspicious at all. I don't know why they were interested in this place, but I do know that there were some like random things left behind when they went in before it got like, like, taken down. Like there was like a checkbook. There were some Polaroids from construction of the building. And detectives reviewed the photos sometime in early 2021 and see that at some point, there was this new slab of concrete that was poured likely when the business had become this oil change station. So detectives use those Polaroids to compare like old versus new construction. And then they excavated the lot in February of that year, but they didn't find anything. So like I said, that excavation makes me think there had to be something specific to that lead because like I said, you don't you don't pour resources into a search. I'm working on this one in California right now where they literally have four separate cadaver dogs do four separate hits and they still won't dig up the ground. So I'm like, what are you like? I don't know. It is. It was just easy because it was getting torn down and why not because it's been so long and they haven't found out. So did you check and see, like, who the land is this car was? Of course. I checked. I did. I did. And I asked Keith's family if this name rang any bells because like when I looked up the property records, it was also like the name on the checkbook and stuff like that. They didn't recognize the name. And police are telling me there's no significance that this person who like owned it had the check books. Like they don't hold any significance in this case. I mean, have they ever named anyone as a suspect or or even a person of interest? No. But to me, the unnamed person who should be a person of interest is whoever Keith was supposed to be meeting at 1215. Yes. Because if that meeting really happened, why has that person never come forward? Well, and I think finding out what that meeting was even about would tell you a lot. And we still don't know detectives have tried over the years, but they have never even gotten a solid reason as to why he would be meeting someone. I mean, have they considered a world where that meeting wasn't even real? I'm sure. Like, because it's the question I keep asking, but like I said, they don't seem to question Chris or Michelle's truthfulness. And again, it's possible that Keith wasn't being honest with them, right? Like they thought it was. Totally. Was Keith meeting someone? I don't know. I think you kind of have to believe there was someone that met up with him after because nobody believes that he just walked off anymore. And actually, there is another small bit of info that I think fits into our puzzle. Apparently, sometime around 1 o'clock in the morning, like an hour after Chris and Michelle dropped Keith off. Keith's sister heard something out the window, like her bedroom window, something that was in the direction of the church parking lot. She said it might have been like a door slam or something like that. Like, it was nothing that worried her or even made her look out her window at the time. Just something that in hindsight makes them think that that is when the car might have been left there. The question is, was Keith driving it? There weren't any phone records pulled to confirm if Keith made any calls to someone before he met up with Chris or when he was back in his apartment before this alleged meeting. Or if they were pulled, we don't know about it. So theoretically, he could have gotten dropped off at home and then gone to meet someone at the church parking lot. In theory, yes. But I think if something happened there, that his sister might have heard more. Like since we know she was away. Right. And remember, the seat was pushed back, like someone taller than Keith was driving. So I think it's more likely that someone dumped the car there. Someone not Keith. Right. But here's the catch. Had to have been someone that knew Keith and his routines well, or at least his old routines. Who would know that Keith used to park in that exact spot? But who wouldn't know that he was recently told not to? Right. I would love to know just how closely police looked into the people closest to Keith. We tried to reach out to Carrie to see if she would talk to us, maybe give us more insight into like who Keith was and who he hung out with back then. But when we called her, her husband picked up a phone and said that she wouldn't talk to us. This one just like eats at me. There is no way the information void is this big. Someone out there has to know something. And actually, even if there's something that people knew and already shared with police or family, they would like to hear it again. Deborah has actually been trying to keep track of all the details herself over the years. She told our reporter that it has been so long and their memories are just aren't as sharp. And she realized that there are just details between 1997 and 1998 that are blurry for them. So part of what they're hoping to gain from this episode is a connection to people from back then. They would love to hear from people who knew Keith, people who went to school with him worked with him so that they can document those details better for themselves. And for whoever picks up the torch after them, as they continued to look for Keith. Because they're never going to give up. So with anyone out there has information that you would like to send to the family, you can send a message on the Missing Man Project website or their Facebook page. And if you have any information for police, you can contact the Wichita Falls Detectives Office at 940-761762 or remain anonymous by calling Wichita Falls Area Crime Stoppers at 940-322-9888. They also have a $25,000 reward. posted for information leading to an arrest. So if money is your motive, it pays to come forward. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkie.com. And you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. [Music] Crimejunkie is an audio check production. I think Chuck would approve.