Keith Mann and his fiancée Carrie, both 20, had recently become engaged after eighteen months of dating.
“the two twenty-year-olds had just recently gotten engaged after eighteen months of dating”

12 Oct 2026 · 34m · Ashley Flowers, Brit Prawat, Annie Elise · 22 quoted facts
Twenty-year-old Keith Mann vanished in May 1997 in Wichita Falls, Texas, after telling friends he had a mysterious meeting at 12:15 a.m. The episode argues the case is so hard to solve because of an information void: no suspect, no named person of interest, and no one who has come forward about that meeting.
The tension is between a life that looked stable and a trail that gives almost nothing to follow. Keith had a new job, a fiancée and money coming, so walking away seems unlikely. A borrowed Mustang, a dealership link, a former employee with a record and a 2021 dig all lead nowhere, and heavy redactions limit what can be checked.
He had just sold two cars and had two commission checks due, and money remained in his bank account. His fiancée was moving in the next day, so detectives and his father rejected the cold-feet theory.
A salesman said he did not have to move the seat back, though he always did when Keith (5'7") borrowed a car. The locksmith said he had not touched the seat either.
The first officer said it did not look like a crime scene, and the car went back to the dealership unprocessed. By the time police tried to process it after it was sold, there was nothing there.
Rumors say Keith is buried under concrete at the dealership's new site, but no search happened. Gary Price, a former mechanic with a robbery record, was once a person of interest, though nothing tied him to Keith.
Police dug up a former car wash lot in February 2021 before it was demolished, using old Polaroids to find newer concrete. They found nothing, and the host suspects there was a specific tip that police have not explained.
In May 1997, 20-year-old Keith Mann was dropped off at his Wichita Falls apartment around midnight after telling friends he had a 12:15 a.m. meeting. He was never seen again, and a dealership Mustang he had borrowed was found in a church parking lot near his parents' home.
He had a new apartment, a job, a fiancée about to move in and two commission checks coming. Money also stayed in his bank account, and his birth mother in New Mexico had not heard from him.
Gary Price was a mechanic at the Ron Roberts Ford dealership where Keith worked, with a record of 1978–79 pharmacy robberies. Coworkers called him dishonest and quick-tempered, and he was once a person of interest, but police never found a link to Keith's disappearance.
No. According to host Ashley Flowers, police have never named a suspect or person of interest in recent years. She thinks whoever Keith was meeting at 12:15 a.m. should be one.
Ashley Flowers says the team's public-records (FOIA) request came back with nearly every page blacked out, and they are still fighting it through the Attorney General. Few records of phone calls or party locations are known, and Keith's family says their memories of 1997–98 have faded.
Stated by the speakers. Each quote matches the transcript, which shows what was said, not that it is true.
Keith Mann and his fiancée Carrie, both 20, had recently become engaged after eighteen months of dating.
“the two twenty-year-olds had just recently gotten engaged after eighteen months of dating”
Keith Mann had worked as a salesman at the Ron Roberts Ford dealership for a couple of months before he disappeared.
“Keith had been working at Ron Roberts Ford dealership for like the past couple of months.”
Salesmen at the Ron Roberts Ford dealership could borrow cars from the lot if they sold enough vehicles.
“if you sell enough cars, you get to borrow cars off the lot.”
A new pastor at the church next to the Mann home had told the family that cars could no longer park in the spot Keith used, because a church van used it.
“the church had gotten a new pastor recently and he told Greg that they couldn't park cars there because”
The Crime Junkie team's public-records request for the case file returned documents in which almost every page was redacted, and the dispute was with the Texas Attorney General.
“we did a FOIA, we got something back, but damn near every page was fully blacked out.”
On Tuesday, May 13, 1997, Greg Mann went to the Wichita Falls Police Department and demanded action, which led to a detective being assigned.
“the next day, Tuesday, the thirteenth, he goes down to the police station and demands that Wichita Falls PD do something.”
On the Saturday night Keith disappeared, his coworker Chris drove a black Nissan Pathfinder dealership demo car.
“Chris was driving a demo car too, this black Nissan Pathfinder.”
Chris, the coworker who was with Keith on his last night, took and passed a polygraph test.
“Chris acts like he's got nothing to hide. He agrees to take a polygraph, which he passes.”
Keith Mann had two commission checks awaiting him the Monday after he vanished, which is one reason investigators doubt he left voluntarily.
“Keith had two commission checks waiting for him on the Monday after he disappeared.”
In 1997, detectives interviewed at least a hundred people connected to Keith Mann, but learned nothing helpful.
“back in 1997, detectives interviewed at least a hundred people, anyone that Keith would've crossed paths with, his friends, his family, coworkers, everyone”
In 1997 Ron Roberts Ford was building a new location less than a mile and a half from Keith Mann's apartment.
“they had a new location being built just up the road from Keith's apartment, like less than a mile and a half away.”
According to the Times Record News, Gary Price held up a pharmacy clerk in Burkburnett, Texas, in mid-September 1978.
“Gary held up a pharmacy clerk in Burke Burnett, Texas, in mid-September 1978.”
After a January 1979 pharmacy robbery, Gary Price pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and received a fifteen-year prison sentence.
“he pled guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.”
Detective Whitehead told the Crime Junkie team that Gary Price worked as a mechanic at Ron Roberts Ford in 1997.
“Detective Whitehead confirmed for us that Gary was working as a mechanic at Ron Roberts Ford in 1997.”
A recorded jail call involving Gary Price took place in May 2007, when the Texas Rangers were reviewing Keith Mann's case.
“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”
Gary Price told a Crime Junkie reporter that he left Ron Roberts Ford before Keith Mann started, a claim Detective Whitehead disputes.
“he actually left Ron Roberts Ford before Keith started working there.”
In September 2020, Deborah Mann found a Facebook post about an American man living on the streets of Mexico who resembled an age-enhanced image of Keith.
“In September of 2020, Deborah found this post on Facebook about this American man living on the streets of Mexico.”
Wichita Falls police located the man from the Facebook post and used DNA testing to determine he was not Keith Mann.
“They tracked this guy down and did DNA testing, but it wasn't Keith.”
Police records list an address on Southwest Parkway, a half mile from Keith Mann's apartment, that was searched in 2021.
“one very specific address on Southwest Parkway, which is a half mile from Keith's apartment.”
In February 2021, detectives excavated a former car wash and oil change lot in Wichita Falls before demolition and found nothing.
“they excavated the lot in February of that year, but they didn't find anything”
Around 1 a.m., Keith Mann's sister heard a noise, possibly a door slam, from the direction of the church parking lot where the Mustang was later found.
“Keith's sister heard something out the window, like her bedroom window, something that was like in the direction of the church parking lot.”
A reward of $25,000 has been posted for information leading to an arrest in Keith Mann's disappearance.
“They also have 25,000 reward posted for information leading to an arrest.”
Introduces Keith, a 20-year-old who seemed to have everything lined up, and the puzzling midnight meeting.
“some of the most mysterious cases are the ones where a person just completely disappears without a trace”
Keith's parents notice a dealership Mustang parked in his old spot next door, which links the car to him.
“It is literally parked over the same like old oil stain from Keith's previous car”
Police are slow to treat the case seriously, while the seat position hints that Keith was not the last driver.
“Oh, weird, I didn't have to move the seat back.”
Reconstructs Saturday night with coworker Chris and his girlfriend Michelle, ending with Keith's unexplained 12:15 a.m. plan.
“Keith just smiled and, like, shrugged his shoulders.”
Rules out cold feet and describes unsupported rumors, including one that Keith is buried under concrete at the dealership's new site.
“there aren't even solid theories in this case”
A former mechanic with a robbery record surfaces in a 2007 jail call but is never tied to Keith.
“a recorded jail call from a guy named Gary Price”
Gary says he left before Keith started and that his son Jeremy knew Keith; police urge caution.
“Gary said that he thinks the Texas Rangers dropped the ball on their investigation”
After a false lead in Mexico, police dig up a former car wash lot but find nothing.
“they excavated the lot in February of that year, but they didn't find anything”
The host argues the 12:15 a.m. contact is the key unknown, and the family asks for tips and memories.
“Someone out there has to know something.”
When you're out in nature, you learn to trust your instincts, you pay attention to the trail, your surroundings, and you stay alert to protect yourself from harm. But what if the biggest threat isn't the environment at all? On Park Predators, host Delia D'Ambra explores true crime cases that happen in national parks and remote wildernesses, the places we usually think of as safe and peaceful. Each episode reveals what happened and how much more there is beneath the surface.
Listen to Park Predators now, wherever you get your podcasts. 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 twenty years old, new apartment,
a good job, a 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? This case is extra sad when you realize 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 fiancee, 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 Wichita Falls in his car, and he was behind them the whole way, right up until they turned onto 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've been Saturday at like nine forty 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 twenty-year-olds had just recently gotten engaged after eighteen 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 would be over at their apartment sometime between like twelve and two 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 peers 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 spot. 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'd 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 scenarios. 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, if 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. I literally asked, but
what was the tape?
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 arrives 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, Keith 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, ugh, we did a FOIA, we got something back, but damn near every page was fully blacked out. It was one Of of the. It was course, one of the most outrageous redactions I have ever seen. Like, we're still fighting it as of 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 thirteenth, he goes down to the police station and demands that Wichita Falls PD do something. And that is when they first assign 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 is
nothing there.
nothing. 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. Carrie'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, 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 gonna go meet a mystery person.
My name is Annie Elise, aka your true crime BFF and host of the podcast Seriously. Now I have been a true crime enthusiast forever, but I wished that somebody would break down the cases for me like a friend, giving me all the details, discussing every twist and turn. So I decided to create a podcast that does just that. Seriously with Annie Elise is topping the charts with over 6 million weekly downloads. I do the deep dives in these cases so you don't have to.
Diving into all the raw details, saying what we all are thinking, and doing it in a conversational way, just like you're talking with your best friend. So join me and let's talk all things true crime. Seriously with Annie Elise. New episodes every single week. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.
When police and Keith's family piece together Keith's last known movements, this is the picture of Saturday night that gets filled in. We know at nine forty, Keith calls Carrie and tells her about his plans to go out with one of his coworkers, Chris, and Chris's girlfriend Michelle. Carrie 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 ten p. m. Keith left his apartment and hopped in the car with Chris and Michelle. Chris was driving a demo car too, this black Nissan Pathfinder. And there was no like 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. Mudd ing 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'd driven. He didn't know the address, he just was like 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 odd to me. This is right at the beginning Like, a that there's,
couple days out?
yeah. Now we spoke with the current cold case detective assigned to this case, Detective Whitehead, and he said the way that he reads the files, detectives felt like Chris and Michelle, like, weren't holding anything back.
So can't Chris just like drive them back out to where the party was,
So this is my thing. Like, 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 twelve fifteen 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?
Because who who meets someone at twelve, fifteen, right? Apparently, Keith just smiled and, like, 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've been around eleven thirty, and then sometime between eleven forty five and twelve, 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, like, 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 but that logic doesn't add up. I know, Like, he 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 Carrie moving in, maybe it was just like happening too fast for him. So she wondered if maybe he'd packed up to live with his bio mom in New Mexico, cause 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, know Keith didn't turn up 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 a hundred people, anyone that Keith would've crossed paths with, his friends, his family, coworkers, 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 kinda come outta nowhere when people are like, I don't know what could've 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.
Uh, okay, am I just reaching here, or does it feel like something like something has to be connected to the dealership here, right?
Right, you got you have, like the car, you have, he's with friends, like, 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 ten 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 Prices out there in the world. But there was one that stood out from the rest, one whose former employer was Ron Roberts Ford dealership.
uh, 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. But that was twenty years before Keith goes missing, like in the late seventies.
Uh, robbery is it like a snatch and grab type of thing?
Not exactly so. According to the Times Record News, Gary held up a pharmacy clerk in Burke 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. Once the pharmacists 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. And after getting caught for that, he pled guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to fifteen 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, Deborah remembers him working at the dealership, but she didn't know much more than that. Detective Whitehead confirmed for us that Gary was working as a mechanic at Ron Roberts Ford in 1997. He told us that Gary popped up on the detective's radar in Keith's 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 like 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 Whitehead. 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 Whitehead 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, like working side 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 at 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 this story?
Amazing. 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 Roberts Ford 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. Gary 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. 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 debts out of Dallas.
right. But he's still making it seem like his son really knew Keith.
I, 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 a grain of salt. Because the one thing we we did ask about, I was like, Well, 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. 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 they're still running down leads when they come in.
My name is Annie Elise, aka your true crime BFF and host of the podcast Seriously. Now I have been a true crime enthusiast forever, but I wished that somebody would break down the cases for me like a friend, giving me all the details, discussing every twist and turn. So I decided to create a podcast that does just that. Seriously with Annie Elise is topping the charts with over 6 million weekly downloads. I do the deep dives in these cases so you don't have to.
Diving into all the raw details, saying what we all are thinking, and doing it in a conversational way, just like you're talking with your best friend. So join me and let's talk all things true crime. Seriously with Annie Elise. New episodes every single week. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.
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 is a pretty close resemblance between him and an age enhanced picture Nick Mick made of Keith, like in his forties.
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 was 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's like, because they could sake.
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, uh, 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 that they washed as far as the car at before again, they're still
dropping him off?
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 used 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 girl, 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. May and maybe it is. J. It was just easy, cause it was getting torn down and why not, because it's been so long and they haven't found him.
So did you check and see, like, who the land Of course, of this car was pulled? I checked I watched along
to see who it went. too. I did, I did, and I asked Keith's family if this name rang any bells. Cause, like, um, 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 checkbooks, 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 twelve fifteen. 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 like question Chris or Michelle's truthfulness. And a again, it's possible that Keith wasn't being honest with them, right? Like, like, they thought, and was Keith meeting someone? was? 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, like, fits into our puzzle.
Apparently, sometime around one zero 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 like 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 awake. 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. But here's the catch. It 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 I think spot, but who wouldn't know that he shouldn't, was just recently told not to, right?
I would love to know just how closely police looked in to 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 the phone and said that she wouldn't talk to us. This one, Brett, 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, but she told our reporter that it has been so long and their memories 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 continue to look for Keith. Because they're never gonna give up. So if 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 nine four zero seven six one seven seven six two. Or remain anonymous by calling Wichita Falls Area Crime Stoppers at nine four zero three two two nine eight eight eight. They also have 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, Crime Junkie dot com.
And you can follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast.
Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. I think Chuck would approve.
Growing up in a small town, I know how deeply a crime can shake a local community. And I know that what makes the headlines is rarely the full story. That's what Kylie Lowe explores on her show, Dark Down East. She digs into cases from Maine and New England using original reporting, archival records, and conversations with the people who knew them best. Each episode takes you inside the communities these stories shaped and the families who never stop searching for answers.
Listen to Dark Down East wherever you get your podcasts.
When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing full body chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful you never know what might follow you home. So gather around, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.