Pamela June Ray

[Hambone2421]

The one story that always stuck with me and that I always wondered about was that of Pamela June Ray. She was a mother of two who was driving her two children from Atlanta to Panama City, Florida. Early in the morning around 5:30am on 8/12/92, she parked her car in the Wilhite Apartments and left her kids in the back along with her purse and keys while she looked for a motel room. Witnesses say they heard a woman scream near the pool of the complex and described an unidentified Caucasian male who had been seen earlier that day urinating in public. She was never found, nor was her killer.

A police officer who saw the unidentified man went under hypnosis and described the man he saw. A suspect fitting that description was arrested for a different sexual assault but was never tied to Ray's disappearance.

Possible new leads developed in Ray's case in 2000 but authorities would not elaborate on the circumstances. Her case remains open and unsolved. This one always seemed creepy to me. Does anyone else remember it?

[biscuitgirl]

I remember this one. I guess what always struck me as odd was the fact that the children were left in the car, yet they never mention if they saw anything or knew anything. If they heard their mother scream, wouldn't they have investigated? This case was very strange. I don't believe she was ever found.

[mah79]

Hi Hambone,
I am posting some links to Pamela Ray's case, courtesy of the Doe Network and Charley Project. The Charley Project goes more into detail with her story, not only with the circumstances of her disappearance, but also with some legal troubles that the family got into, sometime before then. I never kenw about this aspect of her story, as it was never mentioned on UM. Supposedly 400,000 dollars was mistakenly transferred into her dad's account, and she had helped to spend the money, and she, her father (and possibly her husband) and several family members were taken to court for it. I don't think the court case was related to her disappearance, but was just an unfortunate coincidence.
I hope that this case is solved someday. Unfortunately I don't think that Ms. Ray is alive, after all these years, and because of what is known about the night she disappeared (i.e. the screams at night, and how someone saw her following a strange man).
Biscuit girl, I too was curious about the fact that the children were left in the car. The case also mentioned how it was highly unlikely for Ms. ray to leave her children. It is weird that they would never have seen or mentioned anything. i wonder what they might have known, or seen.

The links:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/ray_pamela.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/595dffl.html

[nohwheregirl]

Re: Leaving her kids in the car....

I was always under the impression that the children were probably asleep in the car and she didn't want to wake them. She probably thought she was checking out a room, locked the doors, and expected to be back in five minutes. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing for an attentive mother to do. She was probably desparate to find a hotel room and was, unfortunately, too trusting of someone who offered to help.

[mah79]

Hi nowheregirl,
THat sounds like a very likely theory! It makes sense to me as I think back to the details...it was 3:30 in the morning when she pulled into Florida, after driving all night, and with all the other motels in the area either being closed at that hour, or having no vacancy. Pamela Ray probably was desperate to find a room, and she and her children had probably been running on little sleep. I do think that it is possible that she put misguided trust into the stranger who abducted and probably murdered her.

[Hambone2421]

Thanks for the links@

What I've always thought was odd is the fact that they say her kids were sleeping in the back seat of the car so she left them and her purse in the car and locked it and went to find a motel. Well if she truly was looking for a motel, why didn't she bring her purse? Very odd. I'd also love to know what "new evidence" emerged in 2000 that had the police re-investigate the case.

[Oldschooler81]

Yeah, this always confused me too - it was one of the short stories but very sad and always stood out to me. For the most part I agree the guy the cop saw probably was the guy responsible for (likely) kidnapping and later murdering Pam?

But... if the people in the surrounding hotels (as Stack said) were woken up by her screaming, why wouldn't the kids in the car hear it too since they were closer? I remember the son was a little older and bigger (like 13ish) and even tho he obviously wouldn't be big enough to take on a grown guy, I'd think especially if it were his own mom in danger, at least the son would've tried to help.

P.S. Is it just me or was that town like the Stone Ages for 1992? Even then I was thinking WTF about the hotels not having phones. Sadly I bet if they did, this could've turned out way differently/

[MysteryStacks]

i just think that when she screamed her kids were sleeping and therefore dint hear the screams.....however its troubling to believe that no one in the hotel area dint hear the screams...my feeling was that she was abducted and possibly raped and murdered. This is a sad case for sure....

[unidentified]

What I've always thought was odd is the fact that they say her kids were sleeping in the back seat of the car so she left them and her purse in the car and locked it and went to find a motel. Well if she truly was looking for a motel, why didn't she bring her purse? Very odd. I'd also love to know what "new evidence" emerged in 2000 that had the police re-investigate the case.

Not that it's much relevance but in the re-enactment it showed that the boy was actually sleeping in the front passenger seat of the car and Pamela placed her purse into the front drivers side. You'd have thought this would have woken the boy and maybe he saw something or saw the male (although not sure if the re-enactment is fact perfect).

The financial aspect is a very strange angle and obviously we don't know all the details, but was it not quite odd that the husband didn't go along for the vacation? Could it be that the husband actually had her kidnapped for some unknown reason (possibly related to the money)?

P.S. Is it just me or was that town like the Stone Ages for 1992? Even then I was thinking WTF about the hotels not having phones.

Definitely, but as well as this thought it looked and seemed a very seedy area. Not somewhere you'd want to be with the kids at 5 in the morning. I think even if you were locked in your motel room you wouldn't feel safe.

[Hambone2421]

Originally Posted by unidentified

Not that it's much relevance but in the re-enactment it showed that the boy was actually sleeping in the front passenger seat of the car and Pamela placed her purse into the front drivers side. You'd have thought this would have woken the boy and maybe he saw something or saw the male (although not sure if the re-enactment is fact perfect).

The financial aspect is a very strange angle and obviously we don't know all the details, but was it not quite odd that the husband didn't go along for the vacation? Could it be that the husband actually had her kidnapped for some unknown reason (possibly related to the money)?



Definitely, but as well as this thought it looked and seemed a very seedy area. Not somewhere you'd want to be with the kids at 5 in the morning. I think even if you were locked in your motel room you wouldn't feel safe.

In no way would I blame Pamela June Ray for what happened but sheesh, if she would have just stopped around 10 or 11pm the previous night and rented a hotel, none of this would have happened. Why run the risk of driving straight through and then possibly have to sleep in your car due to no vacancy or the motel not being opened? Why did she zero in on that particular motel? Supposedly (i cant remember which it was) but either the front office door was locked or there was no one there so she walked around looking for someone. Why not just go to the next hotel you see and see if someone is on duty? I find it hard to believe that that particular hotel was the only one in that area.

Also, there was apparently a lead in the case back in 2000. I wonder what the lead was and whatever became of it?

[unidentified]

In no way would I blame Pamela June Ray for what happened but sheesh, if she would have just stopped around 10 or 11pm the previous night and rented a hotel, none of this would have happened. Why run the risk of driving straight through and then possibly have to sleep in your car due to no vacancy or the motel not being opened? Why did she zero in on that particular motel? Supposedly (i cant remember which it was) but either the front office door was locked or there was no one there so she walked around looking for someone. Why not just go to the next hotel you see and see if someone is on duty? I find it hard to believe that that particular hotel was the only one in that area.

I guess the details in the case are a little sketchy, but trying to take the re-enactment as what actually happened.

The re-enactment showed that there were around 4-5 motels all on the same street. Am guessing all of these were closed. She didn't zero in on that particular motel, it said she had tried many and probably just reached the last one and was fed up trying. The front office door was locked, and then there was a gap of a few minutes where no-one knows if she walked around or what happened (it wasn't shown). The next clip shown was the policeman driving past who spotted her following a white male.

Considering she had tried so many motels already and failed, it was possible that the white male had suggested he had a room available, or was going to check if he had a room available for her or something along those lines so she followed him and was never seen again.

[Hambone2421]

Originally Posted by unidentified

Considering she had tried so many motels already and failed, it was possible that the white male had suggested he had a room available, or was going to check if he had a room available for her or something along those lines so she followed him and was never seen again.

Thats a good point. I've never thought of the idea that maybe her abductor/killer told her he was the manager and wanted her to follow him to a specific room to see if it was available.

[unidentified]

Thats a good point. I've never thought of the idea that maybe her abductor/killer told her he was the manager and wanted her to follow him to a specific room to see if it was available.

It's difficult to know, since a lot of what is being relied upon here is the video re-enactment...

I do remember though it showed a map of the motels on that particular street, and there was another motel directly behind the one that she had just tried that was locked up for the night.

It was to the motel behind (in the video clip) that the victim was following the white male, if you read the OP's comment it stated that...

Witnesses ... described an unidentified Caucasian male who had been seen earlier that day urinating in public.

It could be possible that the guy was an out-of-towner who had simply blown in for the day, stayed in the background motel for the night and pretended to the victim that he was the manager to lure her to his room. (Or he may simply have wandered onto that strip though why would he as the whole street simply appeared to be motels?)

[Clockworkhigh]

The thing about Pamela is that while it is plausible that she was aducted by that man last seen with her, the truth is that he may not be responsible for her disapearance. An unlikely scenario but plausible

[unidentified]

The thing about Pamela is that while it is plausible that she was aducted by that man last seen with her, the truth is that he may not be responsible for her disapearance. An unlikely scenario but plausible

Very true though there was a very limited timeframe for anything to happen outside the scope of said street.

PJR was last seen at 0530 by the patrol car walking with the white male.

(I think if I remember) the motel owner found the abandoned car at 0800 and the police arrived to check the scene by 0830.

With PJR being on foot it only gives a window of 2 hrs 30 mins for anything to happen between last sighting and motel manager arriving and spotting the vehicle. How far can the average person walk in such a time? A handful of miles at most probably. Although if she was walking and kept on going or hitchhiked outta there it could also be possibility.

It may not have been the white male who was responsible, but maybe he was an accomplice. I say this because (again relying on the Video Re-enactment), PJR's car was the only one in front of that motel. Around the other motels on the street the Video only shows a handful of cars (around 5/6 at the very most). Things must have been quite quiet on the business front at least with out-of-towners coming in with their cars, even though the video stated that some of the motels PJR tried were full-up. (This may just be a mistake on the part of UM when they remade the video though by not including enough cars in the car parks so may not be a reliable insight).

If you take it that even half of the motels (2-3 motels) on that street were full up with guests, again there is only a limited distance each patron can go on foot if we are relying on the limited number of cars.

Another alternative is that she may have been held captive in one of the motel rooms until someone else came along in a car (that wasn't already there) to take her away. Going by the fact that none of the motels had telephones and the area seemed completely in the stone ages anyway, theres a good chance that the community itself was also in the stone ages regarding up to date police techniques and the abductor could have been one of those asked if he'd heard anything but the police simply didn't notice anything odd about him so let him go about his business.

There must be some clear evidence suggesting foul play however as I do distinctly remember the police flyer at the top stated "Kidnapped" which I thought was odd (rather than simply stating "Missing").