FL FL-Pamela June Ray, 36, Panama City, 12 Aug 1992

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Pamela June Ray – The Charley Project

Pamela June Ray
  • pamela_june_ray_1.jpg
Ray, circa 1992

  • Missing Since08/12/1992
  • Missing FromPanama City, Florida
  • ClassificationEndangered Missing
  • Date of Birth10/03/1955 (63)
  • Age36 years old
  • Height and Weight5'3, 110 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionPurple and black flip-flops, a watch, a wedding band, a one-carat diamond solitaire ring, half-carat diamond earrings, a red tank top and black shorts OR cut-off blue denim shorts and a white shirt, and possibly a necklace.
  • Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Ray's maiden name is Bennett. She has a scar on her head, and her ears are pierced.
Details of Disappearance
Ray drove from her residence in Atlanta, Georgia to Panama City, Florida during the early morning hours of August 12, 1992. She was accompanied by her children, ages five and twelve, at the time.

Ray was not able to locate a vacant motel room in Panama City upon their arrival at approximately 3:30 a.m. She parked her vehicle in the parking lot of the former Wilhite Apartments complex on Front Beach Road for the remainder of the night. Ray was spotted by seven witnesses at the complex, including two police officers.

She locked her car and left her children asleep in the backseat at approximately 5:30 a.m. She also left her purse and keys behind in the vehicle. She walked from the apartment lobby to the swimming pool area at that time and was apparently followed by an unidentified Caucasian man.

The same man had been seen earlier in the morning, urinating in public. Witnesses heard a female screaming for help from the vicinity of the pool at the same time Ray walked towards the area. She has never been seen again.

There have been numerous tips and leads in Ray's case, but none have produced any evidence as to her whereabouts.

One of the police officers who saw her on the night she vanished underwent hypnosis shortly afterwards. He described the unidentified man who followed Ray as having light hair and light eyes. The suspect stood approximately 6'0 and weighed 150 pounds. He wore a shirt with alternating dark and light-colored horizontal stripes.

A man resembling the officer's description was arrested for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman from Chipley, Florida in March 1992 shortly after the hypnosis session. The attack took place five months prior to Ray's disappearance.

Charges against the suspect were eventually dropped due to conflicting descriptions given by the victim. He has never been connected to Ray's disappearance, but authorities searched the area where the woman had been attacked for evidence regarding Ray's case. Nothing was uncovered.

On a side note, a bank clerk in Georgia mistakenly wired approximately $400,000 into Ray's father's account in 1989. Ray was allegedly one of the family members who helped her father spend the money.

Ray's father pleaded guilty to theft of mislaid property in 1991. He repaid the majority of the cash, but prosecutors were frustrated with the lack of payment progress. Other family members, including Ray and her husband, were indicted in 1992 and released on bond.

The family reportedly purchased a condominium at the Gulf Highlands Beach Resort in Panama City under Ray's name. Investigators do not believe that the financial problems were connected to Ray's disappearance.

Ray's case remains open and unsolved. Foul play is suspected.

NamUS: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Original
 
Looking for answers in Pamela June Ray's 1992 disappearance

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Anxiety nearly crippled Rhonda Bishop in the days leading up to her return to Panama City Beach on Monday.

Bishop can't quantify how many times she's driven down from Georgia to the beach side city during the past 27 years, all of them involving the disappearance of her sister, Pamela June Ray. The trips never get easier, but Bishop is determined to find her sister and bring her back.

This time her travels brought her straight to the doorstep of the Panama City Beach Police Station. In her arms, she carried stacks of information she believed would help solve her sister's case. And she wasn't alone. By her side was the daughter of the man she believes is responsible for her sister's death — 31-year-old Jelena Hayes.

"Mark Riebe killed my sister, and his wife was a party to it," Bishop told investigators Monday. Bishop held up a large poster with pictures of her sister, a red Pontiac Firebird, jewelry and other potential evidence she believes is important to the case. "Something has to be done."
 
Looking for answers in Pamela June Ray's 1992 disappearance

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Anxiety nearly crippled Rhonda Bishop in the days leading up to her return to Panama City Beach on Monday.

Bishop can't quantify how many times she's driven down from Georgia to the beach side city during the past 27 years, all of them involving the disappearance of her sister, Pamela June Ray. The trips never get easier, but Bishop is determined to find her sister and bring her back.

This time her travels brought her straight to the doorstep of the Panama City Beach Police Station. In her arms, she carried stacks of information she believed would help solve her sister's case. And she wasn't alone. By her side was the daughter of the man she believes is responsible for her sister's death — 31-year-old Jelena Hayes.

"Mark Riebe killed my sister, and his wife was a party to it," Bishop told investigators Monday. Bishop held up a large poster with pictures of her sister, a red Pontiac Firebird, jewelry and other potential evidence she believes is important to the case. "Something has to be done."
Short video from that link:

 
July 17, 2019

WARRENSBURG, Ill. (AP) —
Investigators have searched land in central Illinois for any remains of a woman who disappeared in Florida in 1992.

Sgt. Roger Pope of the Macon County sheriff’s office says no remains were found Tuesday in rural Warrensburg. The Herald and Review says Pope wouldn’t disclose what brought investigators to the county.

The Panama City News Herald has reported that the 36-year-old Ray was last seen in Panama City, Florida, 27 years ago. Unable to get a room, the Atlanta woman had parked her car at a motel in the middle of the night. Police said her two children were sleeping inside, but Ray had vanished.

Police Search Rural Illinois Area For Woman Missing Since '92
 
Another article:
"Rhonda Bishop, Ray's sister, sparked Tuesday's search. Bishop traveled from her home in Georgia to Panama City Beach earlier this month to provide local police with information that she believes links the property to her sister's disappearance.

Bishop confirmed Tuesday that the Sheriff's Office brought out excavating equipment borrowed from the University of Illinois to search a farm. Photographs provided by WAND, an Illinois TV station, show investigators digging and sifting through dirt under tents near a corn field.

The Sheriff's Office agreed to the dig after the property owners gave Bishop permission to have the land searched. Investigators concluded the search Tuesday night without success.

Bishop believes Mark Riebe, who is serving time for the murder of Donna Callahan of Gulf Breeze, also is responsible for her sister's disappearance. Riebe confessed to killing Ray in the late '90s while serving time for the Callahan murder, but later recanted it. Riebe's family used to own the property in Illinois where his daughter, Jelena Hayes who is working closely with Bishop to solve the case, said she remembers her father making her dig holes. Hayes said Riebe tossed garbage bags into the holes after taking them during a sudden move from Florida to Illinois."

COLD CASE: Search for body unsuccessful in PCB cold case
 
I was in Panama City on a family vacation when Pam was kidnapped. Pam did what many of of us familiar with PCB did back in the day.

she had planned to stay at the Wilhite Motel, a mom and pop place located directly on the beach. It was common practice to make arrangements with the manager on duty for them to leave a room key outside where the customer could find it if they were planning to arrive after the office closed. This is what Pam had done. She was out trying to find the key when she was kidnapped.

the weather was horrible that morning. It was storming and pouring rain. I still remember the heavy police presence up and down Front Beach Road that day.
 

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