Latest / Gone Cold - Texas True Crime / The Disappearance of Gregory Keith Mann Jr.

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The Disappearance of Gregory Keith Mann Jr. · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Gone Cold podcasts may contain violent or graphic subject matter.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Located in North Texas, just 15
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  Speaker 1: miles south of the Oklahoma border, Wichita Falls was shaped
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  Speaker 1: by railroads, oil, the military, and the wide-open plains encompassing
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  Speaker 1: the city. The arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver
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  Speaker 1: City Railway in 1882 helped transform the small settlement into
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  Speaker 1: a regional trading center. Then came oil. The 1918 Burke-Bennett
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  Speaker 1: oil boom, just north of Wichita Falls, brought thousands of
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  Speaker 1: people and enormous amounts of money into the area, establishing
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  Speaker 1: the city as a commercial center for the surrounding oil fields.
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  Speaker 1: During World War II, Another institution began shaping the city,
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  Speaker 1: Shepherd Field, later renamed Shepherd Air Force Base. The installment
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  Speaker 1: brought generations of military personnel and their families to Wichita Falls,
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  Speaker 1: giving the area a combination of longtime local families and
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  Speaker 1: a constant changing population. The area was also transformed by tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: On April 10, 1979, Terrible Tuesday, a massive tornado tore
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  Speaker 1: through southwest Wichita Falls, killing dozens, destroying neighborhoods, and leaving
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  Speaker 1: thousands homeless. The city was rebuilt, and by the 1990s,
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  Speaker 1: its population hovered around 100,000. Wichita Falls wasn't a small town,
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  Speaker 1: but it could still feel like one. People knew one
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  Speaker 1: another through school, work, church, college, or the military base.
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  Speaker 1: Crime rates were significantly above the nation's average by the
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  Speaker 1: late 1990s, by around 20%. That rate was mostly a
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  Speaker 1: reflection of property crimes and assaults. Murders were relatively rare.
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  Speaker 1: Wichita Falls wasn't a place you felt unsafe, or a
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  Speaker 1: place where you had to keep lookout over your shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: For young people in 1997, a time before smartphones and
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  Speaker 1: social media, plans were made face-to-face or over the telephone.
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  Speaker 1: Not everyone had a cell phone, but if you did,
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  Speaker 1: you could only text someone over the same wireless network.
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  Speaker 1: You met friends at restaurants, clubs, or other local hangouts.
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  Speaker 1: You went to parties. Sometimes you simply drove around town.
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  Speaker 1: On a Saturday night in May of 1997, that was
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  Speaker 1: exactly what people across Wichita Falls were doing. But sometime
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  Speaker 1: during the early morning hours of May 11th, one of them,
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  Speaker 1: Keith Mann, vanished. Nearly three decades later, the final half
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  Speaker 1: hour of his life remains almost completely unexplained. Gregory Mann Jr.,
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  Speaker 1: who went by his middle name, Keith, was born on
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  Speaker 1: February 19, 1977, to Greg and Sandra Mann in Alamogordo,
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  Speaker 1: New Mexico. His parents eventually separated, and in 1980, When
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  Speaker 1: Keith was about three years old, Greg married a woman
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  Speaker 1: named Deborah. Keith had always been an active kid, and
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  Speaker 1: sports were naturally a part of his life. He played
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  Speaker 1: soccer first and excelled at it, but during the summer
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  Speaker 1: before ninth grade, Keith made a decision that would change
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  Speaker 1: both where he lived and the direction his athletic life
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  Speaker 1: would take. He chose to move in with Greg and
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  Speaker 1: Deborah in Wichita Falls, Texas. Around that time, he shifted
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  Speaker 1: his focus from soccer to baseball. Greg Sr. had grown
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  Speaker 1: up playing baseball and was a strong player himself, and
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  Speaker 1: the sport became something he and his son could share.
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  Speaker 1: Because Keith came to the game relatively late, he struggled
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  Speaker 1: at first, but he kept improving year after year, and
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  Speaker 1: by his senior year at Rider High, he became one
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  Speaker 1: of the top players on the Raiders. his name often
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  Speaker 1: seeing print in the sports section of the Wichita Falls
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  Speaker 1: Times Record News. Keith's stepmother, Deborah, believed baseball gave him
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  Speaker 1: something to work toward and helped him keep focused throughout
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  Speaker 1: high school. Sports weren't his only interest. In his early teens,
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  Speaker 1: Keith became interested in motorcycles and raced them for a while.
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  Speaker 1: He and his dad also had minibikes and would take
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  Speaker 1: them out together. sometimes spending hours riding and exploring the
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  Speaker 1: open fields around Wichita Falls. Keith never caused much trouble
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  Speaker 1: and did well in school. He was funny, smart, and
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  Speaker 1: always well-kempt. Beyond the classroom and the high school baseball team,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: he kept busy by playing on a competitive softball team
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  Speaker 1: alongside his father. and with the Burke-Bennett Black Sox, a
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  Speaker 1: college preparatory baseball team located north of Wichita Falls. Keith
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  Speaker 1: graduated from Rider in 1995, and the kid who had
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  Speaker 1: once struggled to find his place swinging the bat had
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  Speaker 1: improved enough to earn a baseball scholarship to North Central
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  Speaker 1: Texas College in Gainesville, the oldest continuously operating two-year college
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  Speaker 1: in Texas. By the spring of 1997, Keith had just
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  Speaker 1: turned 20, and his life was changing quickly. In March,
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  Speaker 1: he began working as a car salesman at Ron Roberts
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  Speaker 1: Ford in town. He didn't own a vehicle, but the
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  Speaker 1: job gave him access to dealership demo cars that employees
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  Speaker 1: could occasionally take home. As a young adult, Keith was
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  Speaker 1: well on his way to building a life of his own.
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  Speaker 1: which included far more than just a job selling F-150s
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  Speaker 1: and Crown Vicks. He'd also fallen in love. Much of
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  Speaker 1: Keith Mann's future plans centered on a young woman named
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  Speaker 1: Carrie Kitchens. The two had met while both attending North
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  Speaker 1: Central Texas College, and with Carrie approaching graduation, they were
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  Speaker 1: preparing to begin the next chapter of their lives together
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  Speaker 1: in Wichita Falls. They'd gotten engaged and signed a six-month
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  Speaker 1: lease on a second-floor unit at the Fountain Gate Apartments
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  Speaker 1: on the 5200 block of Tower Drive. The agreement was
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  Speaker 1: originally expected to begin in May, but when the apartment
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  Speaker 1: became available earlier than anticipated, Keith was able to move
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  Speaker 1: in on April 12th. Before then, he'd been living with
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  Speaker 1: Greg and Debra for several months, having moved back home
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: after leaving NCTC Carrie hadn't yet moved into the apartment full-time.
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  Speaker 1: She had been gradually bringing her belongings in on the weekends.
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  Speaker 1: That was supposed to change on Sunday, May 11, 1997.
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  Speaker 1: Carrie had already found work in Wichita Falls and planned
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  Speaker 1: to move in permanently that day. The days preceding the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: big move were busy, of course. There was nothing unequivocally
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  Speaker 1: suggesting anything was wrong. but in hindsight, perhaps, there were signs.
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  Speaker 1: On Thursday night, May 8th, heavy rain inundated the streets
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  Speaker 1: of Wichita Falls. Keith was driving a pickup truck that
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  Speaker 1: evening and stopped by Greg and Debra's to check in
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  Speaker 1: on them and make sure the house hadn't flooded. The
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  Speaker 1: following day, Friday, May 9th, the man's traveled to Gainesville
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  Speaker 1: for Carrie's graduation from North Central Texas Junior College. Keith
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  Speaker 1: was driving a white Ford Escort demo from Ron Roberts
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  Speaker 1: Ford that evening and arrived late. He told his dad
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  Speaker 1: that he had accidentally left his keys in the door
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  Speaker 1: and had to turn around and go back for them.
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  Speaker 1: After the ceremony, Keith's and Carrie's families went out for
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  Speaker 1: a late dinner. During the evening, Greg noticed that his
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: son seemed unusually quiet. Carrie, who rode with Keith from
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  Speaker 1: the college to the restaurant, also noticed what Greg had.
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  Speaker 1: Keith wasn't his normal self. His stepmother Deborah observed the
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  Speaker 1: same thing, later remembering she had to repeat questions before
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  Speaker 1: Keith would respond. He seemed distracted. At the time, however,
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  Speaker 1: there were several ordinary explanations for Keith's unusual behavior. It
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  Speaker 1: was a stressful evening involving both families, and Deborah, for instance,
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  Speaker 1: wondered whether Keith might simply have been uncomfortable. There was
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  Speaker 1: also the fact that Carrie was graduating from the college
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  Speaker 1: Keith himself had attended. He had left school before completing
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  Speaker 1: his second year, and perhaps watching his fiancée graduate weighed
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  Speaker 1: on him. There were clear and logical explanations. After dinner,
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  Speaker 1: Carrie left with her parents to spend the remainder of
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  Speaker 1: the weekend in Dallas, where they planned to sightsee and
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  Speaker 1: continue celebrating the graduation. Keith and his folks headed back
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  Speaker 1: toward Wichita Falls. Greg and Debra had taken a separate vehicle,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: and by the time they reached town, it was around
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  Speaker 1: 1 o'clock Saturday morning. When it was time to part ways,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Keith continued straight while they turned toward McNeil Avenue. He
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  Speaker 1: flashed the lights of the Ford Escort at his dad
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  Speaker 1: and stepmom as he continued on. It was a small gesture,
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  Speaker 1: a quick goodnight between a son and his parents after
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  Speaker 1: a long evening. Deborah and Greg would remember it well,
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  Speaker 1: because it was the last time they saw Keith. The
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  Speaker 1: morning after attending his fiancée' s graduation and a late-night dinner
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  Speaker 1: with both his and her parents, Keith Mann was up
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  Speaker 1: and ready for work. Greg Mann Sr. later estimated that
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  Speaker 1: his son got only four or five hours of sleep
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  Speaker 1: before he had to report to Ron Roberts Ford that morning,
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  Speaker 1: May 10, 1997. Despite how little shut-eye he'd gotten, the
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  Speaker 1: day would turn out to be a productive one at
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  Speaker 1: the dealership, located on the 2900 block of Old Jacksboro
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  Speaker 1: Highway in Wichita Falls. At about 8 a.m. that Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: Keith arrived for his shift. It was nothing new, another
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  Speaker 1: workday at a relatively new job, but it turned out
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  Speaker 1: to be a good one. Keith sold two cars that day.
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  Speaker 1: One of the vehicles was scheduled to be delivered to
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  Speaker 1: the customer on Monday, and he looked forward to his
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  Speaker 1: earned commission. At approximately 6 p.m., Keith's shift was over.
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  Speaker 1: Before leaving the dealership, he checked out a red 1996
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  Speaker 1: Mustang demo car and completed a gas voucher to cover
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  Speaker 1: the fuel. Later that evening, he met up with his
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  Speaker 1: co-worker Chris and his girlfriend, Michelle. Chris had also checked
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  Speaker 1: out a demo vehicle from the dealership, a black Nissan Pathfinder.
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  Speaker 1: By about 9.40 p.m., Chris and Michelle were with Keith
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  Speaker 1: at his Fountain Gate apartment. Keith spoke with Carrie on
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  Speaker 1: the telephone, and during the call, she could hear his
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  Speaker 1: guests in the background. The engaged couple discussed their plans
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  Speaker 1: for the following day, Sunday the 11th. She would arrive
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  Speaker 1: at the apartment sometime around 2 that afternoon, Carrie told him.
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  Speaker 1: After the call, Keith, Chris, and Michelle left in the
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  Speaker 1: Nissan Pathfinder. At approximately 10 p.m., they stopped at a
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  Speaker 1: Fina gas station on Kell Boulevard, where Keith used Carrie's
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  Speaker 1: Fina card to buy some snacks, while Chris bought beer.
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  Speaker 1: Their presence at the store was captured on surveillance video.
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  Speaker 1: The three then spent some time driving around the southwest
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  Speaker 1: part of Wichita Falls, including an area near Memorial Stadium
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  Speaker 1: where they went mudding in the Pathfinder. They also reportedly
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  Speaker 1: drove toward Lake Wichita looking for a party. Around 11.30 p.m.,
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  Speaker 1: they stopped at a car wash to clean the mud
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  Speaker 1: off the Nissan. It was around this time that Keith
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  Speaker 1: told Chris and Michelle he needed to get back to
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  Speaker 1: Fountain Gate. He told them he had plans to meet
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  Speaker 1: someone at 12.15 a.m., though he did not say who.
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  Speaker 1: At about 11.45 p.m., Chris and Michelle brought Keith back
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  Speaker 1: to his apartment. When he got out of the Pathfinder,
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  Speaker 1: Keith was carrying three bottles of beer. He was wearing
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  Speaker 1: blue jeans, an ivory-colored long-sleeved shirt or pullover, a beige
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  Speaker 1: baseball cap, and brown lace-up boots or shoes made of
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  Speaker 1: a suede-like material. His friends watched him begin climbing the
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  Speaker 1: stairs toward his second-floor unit, making it roughly half a flight,
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  Speaker 1: about six steps, before they drove away. They didn't see
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  Speaker 1: him enter the apartment. It was the last confirmed sighting
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  Speaker 1: of Keith Mann. Sunday, May 11, 1997, was Mother's Day.
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  Speaker 1: Greg and Deborah Mann lived on McNeil Avenue, within sight
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  Speaker 1: of St. Mark's Methodist Church at McNeil and Phillips Drive.
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  Speaker 1: At around 7 that morning, Greg and Debra walked from
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  Speaker 1: their house to church, and as they did, she noticed
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  Speaker 1: a red Mustang sitting in the parking lot. At that point,
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  Speaker 1: Debra didn't know it was the demo Keith had checked
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  Speaker 1: out from Ron Roberts Ford for the weekend. It could
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  Speaker 1: have belonged to anyone. But there was something about it
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  Speaker 1: that caught her attention. The Mustang was in the same
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: area where Keith normally parked. Debra later said that she
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: thought that, somewhere in the back of her mind, she
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: may have wondered if it was a demo car her
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  Speaker 1: stepson had checked out. Still, there was no reason to
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  Speaker 1: assume that it was. Greg and Debra went into church.
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  Speaker 1: When they came back out a couple hours later, all
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  Speaker 1: the cars were gone. but the red Mustang was still
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: sitting in the same spot. That was when it began
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: to seem strange, but not in any way that suggested
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  Speaker 1: anything had happened to Keith. At about 1 p.m., Carrie
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: arrived in Wichita Falls. She got to the apartment an
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  Speaker 1: hour earlier than she had told Keith the evening before.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't there. His work clothes were lying on the bed,
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  Speaker 1: and it appeared he hadn't spent the night there. On
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  Speaker 1: the kitchen counter sat three beer bottles. Two were unopened,
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  Speaker 1: and the third was about half empty. Carrie called Keith's
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: parents looking for him, but they also hadn't heard from him. Suddenly,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the red Mustang sitting at St. Mark's Methodist seemed significant.
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  Speaker 1: Greg and Debra went over to look at it more closely.
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  Speaker 1: The car was locked, and the passenger side appeared clean.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: with no personal belongings visible inside. That in itself wasn't unusual,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: as employees were expected to keep the dealership's demo vehicles tidy. However,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: there was something strange. The trunk was unlatched. When Greg
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: opened it, he found it empty, but an interior panel
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: on the left side had been pulled out of place.
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  Speaker 1: He later remembered thinking it looked as though someone had
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: removed something from behind it. Carrie soon arrived at Greg
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: and Deborah's house, where they all waited. Trying not to panic,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Greg offered a simple explanation. Maybe Keith had gone to
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the lake or somewhere else to hang out with friends
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and had left the Mustang in the parking lot after
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: meeting them there. But Carrie and Deborah were shook. Keith
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: knew his fiancée would be at the apartment that afternoon,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: and it was Mother's Day. Keith and his stepmother were close.
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  Speaker 1: He and Carrie were supposed to come to the house
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  Speaker 1: with gifts and spend part of the day there. By
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: 3 p.m., Keith still hadn't appeared or made contact. As
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: afternoon became evening, Greg's confidence that his son had simply
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: gone to the lake began to disappear. Something wasn't right.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: The following day further eliminated any simple explanations. Keith Mann
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be at Ron Roberts' Ford, where he
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: had sold two cars on his Saturday shift, one of
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: which was scheduled for delivery that day. He also had
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: two paychecks waiting for him. He never showed up. At
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: 7 o'clock Monday morning, Greg Mann filed a missing person
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: report with the Wichita Falls Police Department. A patrol officer
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: was sent to check out the Ford Mustang. which had
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: been confirmed as the demo Keith had checked out at
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the dealership. There were no signs a struggle had occurred
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: in or around the car. From the perspective of police,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: there was nothing that clearly indicated a crime had taken place.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: They were a step behind the family, thinking that maybe
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Keith had stayed at a friend's house or taken an
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: unplanned trip. They thought the 20-year-old would simply turn up.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Police explained that missing person reports involving college-age adults were
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: not uncommon. The Mustang was eventually retrieved by an employee
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: from Ron Roberts Ford. According to Debra, that employee noticed
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: something that only further worried them. Keith was only around
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: 5'6 or 5'7, while the employee that picked up the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: car was close to 6 feet tall. Normally, he had
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: to move the driver's seat after Keith had been behind
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the wheel. This time, he didn't. The seat was already
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: positioned comfortably for someone his height. Eventually, it became clear
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: to Wichita Falls Police that Keith Mann hadn't just carelessly
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: stayed out partying with friends, and detectives with the department's
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Crimes Against Persons unit became involved. They went to Keith's apartment,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: but found no obvious crime scene there either. No signs
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of a struggle. No signs of forced entry. and nothing
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: was visibly out of place. Detectives found the apartment generally
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: as they would have expected to find it. With the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: three beer bottles as evidence, it was obvious Keith had
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: made it inside, but there was nothing there, inside or out,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: indicating that he had been taken by force. No one
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: reported seeing a confrontation or hearing tires squealing away from Fountaingate.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Even the midnight meeting offered investigators little direction. Keith's friends
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: didn't get the impression that he was worried about whoever
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: he planned to meet at 1215. He didn't act anxious
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: or reluctant about it, and his friends believed it was
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: probably someone he knew. No one, however, had any idea
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: who that person was. With absolutely no leads in the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: disappearance of Keith Mann, the Wichita Falls police turned to
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the public. Keith's photographs and description were distributed through the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: newspapers and television news reports. Soon, detectives began receiving tips
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: and reports of possible sightings. Some were able to be
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: checked and eliminated, and others didn't even go anywhere in
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the first place. There was no financial trail to follow.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Keith's bank account showed no activity after the night he
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: was last seen. Carrie's gas card, which he had used
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: during the Saturday night stop at the Fina station, was
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: never used again. His belongings were left behind, and the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: two paychecks waiting for him at Ron Roberts Ford, totaling
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: more than $ 1, 500, went unclaimed. There was no evidence at
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: all that Keith had prepared to disappear. Because the police
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: investigation was going nowhere, his parents began searching for him themselves.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: They made flyers and distributed them throughout Wichita Falls and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: surrounding communities. Greg had an unusual resource available to him.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: At the time, he owned the downtown bus station on
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: 14th Street. not only making it easy to check whether
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Keith had left Wichita Falls by bus, but also to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: get his son's photograph into other communities. Flyers went well
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: beyond Wichita Falls, including to a cousin in Colorado. Local
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: businesses and individuals contributed toward a reward, with family friend
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: James Watley helping organize the money. But nothing brought Keith home.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: By May 29th, Nineteen days after he disappeared, Lieutenant Laura
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Arnold said detectives had no clues concerning his whereabouts. And
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: as the conventional search failed to produce an answer, desperation
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: began widening the places his family was willing to look.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Carey suggested psychics. The psychics told them Keith was near water,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: so that's where the man's searched. Another man who claimed
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: he could locate water underground using a dousing rod later
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: contacted them and offered something more specific. Greg sent him
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a surveillance map of Wichita Falls, and the man gave
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: a location roughly 6.1 to 6.3 miles away where he
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: believed they should look. Greg searched, but nothing came of it,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: an unfortunate trend that continued in the years ahead. The
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: man's followed every tip. no matter how outlandish it seemed,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and every one of them ended in disappointment. Though there
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: was no evidence of foul play, Keith's disappearance became increasingly
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: difficult to explain as a voluntary departure. By May 10, 1998,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: an entire year had passed without a confirmed sighting or
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: communication from Keith. He should have turned 21 that February. Instead,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: his family was still searching for the 20-year-old who had
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: disappeared the previous May. The uncertainty consumed them. Deborah later
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: described going to bed thinking about Keith and waking up
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: thinking about him. Possible sightings over the preceding years included
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: reports of someone resembling Keith in Mexico and another at
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: a homeless encampment. But none could be confirmed. As the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: investigation slowed to a trickle, rumors began filling the space
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: left by the lack of answers. Some suggested Keith was alive.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Others claimed he had been killed. One particularly disturbing story
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: surfaced repeatedly in different forms, that Keith had been buried
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: beneath concrete. According to Debra, several locations were associated with
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: versions of that rumor. Police investigated some of them and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: at least one location was eventually dug up. Keith wasn't found.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: As time passed, detectives changed, leads were revisited, and Keith's
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: information was entered into state and national missing persons databases.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: His dental records became available for comparison, and DNA would
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: eventually become available as well. Fingerprints, however, were not. but
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: those methods could only help identify Keith if he was found.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: When he had been missing for five years, in 2002,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: a Texas Ranger and a special agent with the Texas
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety conducted a joint cold case review,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: going back through the investigation in search of something that
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: might have been missed. According to the family, it didn't
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: produce any significant breakthrough. Time continued to pass. Five years
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: became ten. Ten became fifteen. Keith's family continued marking the anniversaries,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: speaking publicly and keeping his photograph in circulation. Eventually, age-progressed
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: images were created and shown alongside it. In 2019, the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Wichita Falls Police reorganized its cold case investigations, and John
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Laughlin became the department's dedicated cold case detective. After reviewing
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Keith's disappearance and the work of investigators before him, Laughlin
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: explained that police had once held out hope that Keith
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: might still be alive, that perhaps some unknown crisis had
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: caused him to leave. After more than two decades, the
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: department no longer considered that the most likely explanation. Laughlin
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: said police had reached the point where they suspected Keith
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: had been the victim of foul play. In May of 2022,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: 25 years after Keith disappeared, the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Program issued a public appeal asking for information that could
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: help locate him or explain his disappearance. Still, there was
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: no answer. By 2025, Greg and Debra had been looking
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: for Keith for 28 years. Greg still calls police. He
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: still asks questions. Through themissingmanproject.com, the family continues trying to
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: reach the people who knew Keith and those who were
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: in Wichita Falls when he disappeared. Keith's sister Brittany originally
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: created it as her senior design project, developing the website
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and Facebook page along with postcards and small endangered missing
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: person cards that could be distributed to keep her brother's
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: case visible. Its symbol, a heart, comes from something deeply
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: personal to the Mann family. When Keith was playing baseball,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: his family noticed that on trips to out-of-town games, seeing
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: a hawk along the way seemed to bring him good luck.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: On the days they spotted one, Keith might hit a
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: home run or make a particularly good play. Like the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: rituals and superstitions common among baseball players, the hawk eventually
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: became part of Keith's game-day traditions. After he disappeared, its
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: meaning changed. The family chose the hawk to represent the
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: missing man project because it still connected them to Keith,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: but what had once represented good luck came to represent hope.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Even now, seeing a hawk in the sky or perched
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: alongside the road can bring a sense that Keith is
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: somehow still there with them. the Missing Man Project is
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: one more way they have kept his face and his
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: story in front of the public since May of 1997,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: hoping that eventually it reaches someone who knows something they
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: have never been told. Wichita Falls police detectives still believe
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: there are people around who may know something. Over the years,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the investigation has included numerous interviews and polygraph examinations, and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: in 2026, Detective Brad Love made a specific appeal to
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: anyone who knew Keith in the weeks and months before
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: he disappeared. They want to hear about anything that seemed
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: unusual or out of character, even if it didn't appear
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: important at the time. The case, they say, remains active.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: In May of 2026, Greg Mann publicly called for the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: department to release its unredacted case files, saying the family
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: had received records but that substantial portions remained concealed. The
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: police responded that releasing the complete files could jeopardize the investigation.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: They also said detectives continued to follow every lead and
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: are exploring new investigative methods and technologies that were not
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: available when Keith disappeared. For Greg and Debra, the reason
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: for continuing to search has never changed. They want their
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: son back, and Keith's two sisters and brother want their
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: sibling back. The last memories his family has of him
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: are of a 20-year-old young man who had only begun
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: building an adult life. Keith would now be approaching 50
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: years old. If you have any information about the disappearance
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: of Gregory Keith Mann Jr., please contact Wichita Falls Area
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Crime Stoppers at 940-322-9888. Tips can be made anonymously. You
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: can also visit the family's website at themissingmannproject.com That's themissingman, M-A-N-N, project.com.
• 31:29
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• 31:32
  Speaker 1: light on unsolved homicides and missing persons cases, get the
• 31:36
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• 31:40
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• 31:47
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• 31:50
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• 31:54
  Speaker 1: support Gone Cold, we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, y'all.