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() Greg and Debra Mann have been looking for their son, Keith, for 28 years and still have no answers.
“There’s a lot of questions I have. A lot of questions I want answered. It’s just very tough,” Greg Mann said. “I’m not going to give up until I find him, one way or the other.”
Debra Mann, Keith Mann’s stepmother, has been in his life since he was very young.
“He was about 2 years old when we married in 1980, and he was just a sweet little boy who loved to play ball, any kind of sport,” she said.
Keith Mann’s last known actions
Keith Mann had his whole life ahead of him in May of 1997. He had just turned 20, had a new job at an auto dealership, a fiancée, Carrie, and plans for the future.
On May 10, 1997, it was a pleasant Saturday in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Det. John Laughlin detailed Keith Mann’s known activity. He worked a full shift, selling two cars with one scheduled to be delivered Monday, which would mean getting a commission check.
“He spent the day at work and went out with friends that night, and him and his friends stopped and grabbed some burgers at a fast food restaurant, and they stopped at a gas station,” Laughlin said. “One of his friends was also a coworker at the dealership, and they had a vehicle, and they went riding around in that vehicle until they took Keith to his apartment.”
Mann’s friends said they dropped him off at his new place at the Fountaingate Apartments.
“They claimed they dropped him off, said they saw him when they dropped him off, walk up half a flight of six stairs and left. They never saw him go into the apartment,” Greg Mann said.
Keith Mann disappears
Keith Mann had told his friends he had to get back home to meet someone, said Victoria Snee, who reported on the case.
“He had been dropped off by friends. He was supposedly meeting someone later on that evening, it was late at night,” Snee said. “But that was it. There was no activity on his checking account; there was no run on any credit cards. He just literally vanished.”
The next morning was Mother’s Day. Mann and his fiancée, Carrie, had plans to visit his parent to celebrate the day. Greg and Debra Mann noticed the loaner Mustang Keith Mann had been driving was parked next door in the church parking lot.
With no word from their son, they checked out the car.
“As you got up on the car, you could see the trunk was popped,” Greg Mann said. “So I opened the lid to the truck and it was clean, there was nothing inside the truck, but there was a panel that was pushed out on the left-hand side, like someone had got something out of there.”
The hours ticked by with no word from Keith Mann. By Monday morning, his father filed a missing persons report with the police.
“We always knew where he was going and where he was at. This was the only time, nothing, just like he fell off the face of the Earth,” Greg Mann said. “You know, he didn’t take any clothes with him. He had checks coming through at his workplace. I know my son. He’d want his money. Something happened to him.”
Keith Mann’s car
A salesman from the dealership was called to pick up the car.
“When he got there, he was telling people, I didn’t have to adjust the seat this time and usually when I get in the car after Keith, I have to adjust the seat,” Debra Mann said. “Because Keith was only like 5’7″, and this guy was close to six feet.”
Questions arose as to whether Keith Mann had driven the car to that church parking lot.
There were searches and investigations, but very little to go on. Police have continued the search over the years, but the mystery remains.
Was foul play involved in Keith Mann’s disappearance?
“In times past, there was always the hope that we would find Keith, that something had just occurred, maybe some mental health crisis that we are unaware of or undiagnosed and he just wandered off,” Laughlin said. “But I think as I’ve worked the case and reviewed the previous investigator’s casework that they did, we’re to the point now that we do suspect foul play was involved.”
Over the years, there have been sightings, someone who looked like Keith Mann in Mexico, another at a homeless encampment. But they weren’t him.
The case is still unsolved, and the Manns continue to sort through rumors.
“Most of the rumors involve being buried under concrete,” Debra Mann said. “So there’s several locations that they’ve looked into. Dug up one place and eliminated that one, but that is the common theme around town.”
It’s a horrifying possibility for the couple who still have no answers, 28 years later.
“I know they probably get tired of me calling, but that’s my son, and I want to know where he’s at,” Greg Mann said. “I’ve been looking for him since he disappeared. Yes, I can show that I’m okay and all, but deep down, I’m not. I want to know where my son is, and I want to know what happened to him.”