At 8:00 a.m. on August 12, 1992, police were called to the Wilhite Motel parking lot in Panama City Beach, Florida, a resort town on the Gulf of Mexico coast. The manager had noticed two young children sleeping in a 1991 Plymouth Sundance parked in front of the motel office. Although only mid-morning, the day was already hot and humid. Several area pets had recently died of heatstroke after being left in automobiles, and the manager feared a similar scenario could befall the children if left unattended.

When police arrived, the children awoke and opened the car’s door. They told the officers their mom was trying to get into the motel. When pressed, the children said earlier that morning, while it was still dark, they saw their mom walk into the motel, and they fell asleep in the car waiting for her to return.

The car’s keys and a woman’s purse containing $200 worth of traveler’s checks were inside the vehicle. Also in the purse was a driver’s license for thirty-six-year-old Pamela “Pam” Ray of Villa Rica, Georgia, a suburb thirty miles west of Atlanta and two-hundred-eighty-five miles north of Panama City Beach. The car was confirmed as hers.

The missing mom never checked into the Wilhite Motel and has not been seen since that muggy morning thirty-two years ago.

Although a motive was discovered suggesting she may have wanted to disappear, authorities believe Pam Ray met with foul play.

Pam Ray

On the evening of August 11, Pam and her children, twelve-year-old Shayne and five-year-old Brandi, departed their home for a three-day trip to northern Florida. Pam’s husband Michael, a truck driver, was unable to accompany his family because of his work schedule.

The Ray Family

After briefly visiting her brother in Luthersville, forty miles south of Villa Rica, Pam began the nearly two-hundred-fifty mile drive to the resort town of Panama City Beach, Florida, one-hundred-thirty miles east of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle. She departed at roughly 10:30 p.m. and is believed to have arrived at approximately 3:30 a.m. on August 12.

Pam’s odd departure time from home and early morning arrival in Panama City are puzzling.

Early Morning Arrival

Panama City’s Wilhite Motel and Apartment Complex was part of a group of cheap area motels situated near a beach. Shortly before 7:00 p.m. on the evening of August 11, manager Tim Hairston recalled Pam phoning the motel to inquire of available rooms for the following day. He told her he would have an open room but not until between 9:00 and 10:00 the following morning. Pam told her that would be fine. If she wished to stay at the Wilhite, Tim does not understand why she would arrive in the very early morning hours, well before she could check into the room.

At approximately 4:00 a.m. on August 12, Pam went to the adjacent El Dorado Motel. As they had no vacancies, staff referred her to the Beachside Motel across the street. Manager Ray Broughton told her they had a room available, but she did not take it.

Pam’s parents believe she sought a beachfront room; neither of the available rooms at the Wilhite or the Beachside motels were such rooms.

Several people saw Pam sitting in her car back at the Wilhite Motel parking lot at around 5:00.

The Area Motels

Twenty-five minutes later, Drew Whitman, a police officer and moonlighting motel security guard, observed Pam standing next to her car speaking to a white male. He then saw the man walk into the parking lot, at which point Pam locked her car and followed him. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

A short time later a motel guest saw Pam walking from the apartment lobby to the motel swimming pool. She was followed by a white man whom the guest had seen urinating in public earlier that morning.

Pam Is Seen Speaking With An Unknown Man

Shortly thereafter, at approximately 5:35 a.m., several motel residents were awakened by female screams. The rooms had no telephones and, as this was before most people had cell phones, no one reported the incident.

By 8:00, when police arrived at the motel in response to the manager’s call of the abandoned children, a rainstorm had washed away any physical evidence that may have aided them in determining what happened to Pam Ray.

Pam’s Screams?

Under hypnosis, Officer Whitman described the man he saw speaking to Pam in the motel parking lot as approximately six-feet tall, weighing one-hundred-fifty pounds, and wearing a shirt with alternating dark and light-colored horizontal stripes. Several other people believe they saw the same man sitting on a folding chair outside the Wilhite Motel that morning.

Several weeks later, a twenty-nine-year-old Panama City Beach man was arrested for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Chipley, fifty-five miles northeast of Panama City Beach, in March 1992, five months prior to Pam’s disappearance. The rape victim’s description of her attacker resembled Officer Whitman’s recollections of the man he saw speaking to Pam Ray.

The Chipley attacker hit the woman on her head with a bottle, choked her into unconsciousness, and then took her to the woods where he raped her. The woman survived, and although she picked the man out of a photo lineup, he was released because of discrepancies in her statements.

Charges against the suspect were ultimately dropped. The man is believed to have been, but is not confirmed to be, the now-deceased Andrew Henry. I could not find anything about DNA tests being conducted to determine if he was the rapist.

Police searched the area where the woman had been attacked but found no evidence relating to Pam Ray’s disappearance.

Andrew Henry

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Pam Ray is convicted murderer and possible serial killer Mark Riebe.

Mark Riebe

On August 6, 1989, three years before Pam Ray’s disappearance, twenty-nine-year-old convenience store clerk Donna Callahan disappeared while working at the Sunshine Jr Food Store on United State Highway 98 in Gulf Breeze, Florida, in the far western part of the state, one-hundred miles west of Panama City Beach. She was two months pregnant with her second child at the time.

Donna Callahan

In 1993, Riebe’s half-brother Alex Wells was serving a seven-year prison term for kidnapping, assault, and robbery of a convenience store. Several fellow prisoners overheard him talking about abducting and murdering Donna Callahan and burying her on family property.

Police searched Wells’ property in June, but found nothing. Riebe aided them with their search and said he saw Donna’s body in the trunk of Wells’ car. He, as well, claimed that Wells had confessed to her murder.

Although Donna’s remains had not been found, Alex Wells was indicted in 1995 for her murder based on the statements from Riebe and the inmates.

Alex Wells

As Wells’ trial date neared in July 1996, he confessed to Donna Callahan’s murder and led police to her remains buried on family property in DeFuniak Springs, eighty miles northeast of Gulf Breeze.

Donna’s Remains Are Located

Wells claimed that he and Riebe abducted Donna Callahan at gunpoint after robbing the Sunshine Jr Food Store, but that it was Riebe who strangled her to death in the backseat of his car. Both men pled no contest to her murder to avoid the death penalty.

Riebe was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison, while Wells received two consecutive life terms.

No half-brotherly love exists between the men; they continue to point fingers at each other as to who killed Donna Callahan. Each also accuses the other of being a serial killer.

Riebe And Wells;

Half Siblings, Full Louses

In 1999, seven years after Pam Ray’s disappearance, the incarcerated Riebe told authorities he had killed twelve other women, one of them being Pam. In some, he implicated his half-brother Wells, but not in Pam’s case.

Most of Riebe’s confessions are considered bogus, as he was vague in details of many of the murders he claimed to have committed. Investigators, however, say some, including his claim to killing Pam Ray, have merit.

Riebe Confesses . . .

Riebe claimed he and his wife Vicky were partying in Panama City Beach on the evening and morning of August 11-12, 1992. After running out of money, they looked for someone to rob. After noticing Pam’s car in the Wilhite Motel parking lot, Riebe claimed he followed her, abducted her at knifepoint, robbed her, and killed her.

Riebe told authorities Pam was carrying a single key in her hand when he attacked her; Pam’s family confirmed that was her habit and Officer Whitman, the police officer who had undergone hypnosis, recalled her walking toward the motel with the key in her hand after locking her car. Many investigators believe this detail was something only the abductor would have known.

Because he was drunk at the time, Riebe said he could not recall where he had disposed of Pam’s body; he thought it was either in Point Washington, twenty-five miles northwest of Panama City Beach, or that he had dumped her in the Atlantic Ocean.

Although he recanted several of his confessions, including to killing Pamela Ray, authorities have named Mark Riebe the prime suspect in her disappearance.

. . .  But Recants

Although several of his murder confessions have been proven false, authorities believe Mark Riebe may be a serial killer. As of now, however, he has only been convicted of the murder of Donna Callahan.

Is Riebe A Serial Killer?

In the months after Pam Ray’s disappearance, several people across the Florida Panhandle reported seeing her either waiting tables in a restaurant or washing clothes in a laundromat. In addition, newspapers reported her brother had seen her sitting in a Lincoln town car on the interstate near Birmingham, Alabama.

Authorities, however, could not confirm any of the sightings and believe all are cases of mistaken identity.

Possible Sightings Of Pam

In 2000, eleven years after Pam Ray’s disappearance, additional skeletal remains were found on the Riebe family’s former property in DeFuniak Springs, one-hundred yards from where Wells had led investigators to Donna Callahan’s remains in 1996.

The remains were determined not be of Pam Ray.

Not Pam’s Remains

Mark Riebe, the prime suspect in Pam Ray’s disappearance, lived for a time in central Illinois in the 1990s. As a four-year-old, his daughter, Jelena Hayes, recalled the family using two U-Haul trucks to transport many of their belongings from Florida to their farm near Warrensburg. Upon arriving, she recalls large holes were dug on the property and were filled with trash bags her father had brought from Florida.

Jelena also described a ring worn by her mother after Pam’s disappearance that was similar to one Pam’ sister, Rhonda Bishop, says Pam had.

Young Jelena And Her Father

In July 2019, the former Riebe family farm in Illinois was searched, but no human remains were found.  Additional area searches may be conducted and renewed searches may also be done around Riebe and Wells’ former properties in Florida.

A Recent Search Comes Up Empty

Pamela June Ray has been missing since August 12, 1992. At the time of her disappearance, she was thirty-six-years-old, five-feet-three-inches tall and weighed one-hundred-ten pounds. Her eyes and hair were brown, both her ears were pierced, and she had a scar on her forehead. She would today be sixty-eight-years-old.

Foul play is suspected in the disappearance of Pam Ray.  Her family is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts or remains. If you have any information relating to her disappearance, please contact the Panama City, Florida, Police Department at 904-233-5000 or the Crime Stoppers phone number shown below.

Pressing On to Find Pam

Nothing I found suggested Pam’s husband Michael is suspected of any involvement in her disappearance.

Pam And Michael

An interesting occurrence suggested a possibility for Pam Ray engineering her own disappearance.

In 1989, three years before she vanished, a clerk at the Commercial Bank of Douglas (Georgia) County mistakenly wired approximately $400,000 into the bank account of the family trucking company headed by Pam’s father, Ralph Bennett. Rhonda says their father was owed money from the government for work his company had done, and he believed the money was payment for the services.

After a few months during which the error went undetected, several family members, including Pam, spent the bulk of the windfall.

Ralph Bennett pled guilty to theft of misplaced property in 1991 and was placed on ten-years-probation on the condition that he repay the money. He had repaid the majority, but by early 1992, he had become delinquent on paying the remaining $100,000.

Simultaneously, the family purchased a Gulf Highlands Beach Resort in Panama City Beach.

Ralph Bennett

Pam’s Father

In February 1992, six months before Pam disappeared, she, along with her parents, siblings, and husband, were indicted for failure to pay the remainder of the misplaced property. All were listed as owners of the trucking company and were released on bond.

Pam Was Indicted

Ralph Bennett ultimately served thirty days in jail.

Ralph Is Briefly Jailed

The other family members, including Pam, were never officially charged with the theft and their records were eventually expunged.

Investigators concluded the incident is unrelated to Pam’s disappearance as they determined she was a devoted wife and mother who would not have voluntarily abandoned her family.

Pam Was Devoted To Her Kids

SOURCES:

• Charley Project
• Doe Network
• Florida Today
• lostnfoundblogs. com
• Miami Herald
• MyPanhandle. com
• Panama City News Herald
• NBC Affiliate WJHG-TV Panama City
• Rome News-Tribune (Georgia)
• Tallahassee Democrat
• Unsolved Mysteries