The Strange Vanishing of Keith Reinhard

In the summer of 1988, Keith Reinhard, a sports writer from the Chicago suburbs, traveled to the small mountain town of Silver Plume, Colorado.

He longed for a change of scenery and enough free time to begin writing his first novel.

Once there, Keith rented a small storefront and opened an antique shop. While settling in, he learned about a man who had mysteriously vanished from the town nine months earlier. The intriguing story inspired Keith, who loosely based his novel on the case.

On August 7th, 1988, Keith said he was going hiking and never returned home. His disappearance led to one of the largest mountain search operations in Colorado history.

The eerie similarities between the two cases left everyone wondering what happened to Keith Reinhard nearly four decades ago.

Background

Keith Reinhard was born on September 10th, 1938, and lived with his family in Algonquin, Illinois. He worked as a sports writer at the Daily Herald for 22 years, often covering high school sports events. Keith was married to Astrid Reinhard, and the couple had three children, Tiffany, Kai, and Sven.

Unfortunately, their marriage fell apart, but years later, Keith met his second wife, Carolyn. As his 50th birthday approached, he began reflecting on his life and career.

He remained in contact with his childhood friend, Ted Parker, who ran a café in Silver Plume, Colorado.

The small, picturesque community of fewer than 200 residents was nestled in the Rockies, and Keith thought it would be a perfect place for reinventing himself. He had always dreamed of writing a novel, and a change of scenery could be just what he needed before turning 50.

In late May 1988, Keith informed his wife Carolyn that he was taking a three-month leave of absence from the Daily Herald to move to Colorado. He planned to open an antique store there, and if the business was successful, the whole family could join him in Silver Plume.

Keith arrived in Silver Plume in June 1988 with three goals in mind: to write his novel, to get in shape by hiking, and to overcome his crippling fear of heights. He rented a small apartment in the back of an abandoned church and found an ideal location for his antique shop.

He secured a storefront on Main Street, directly across from Ted’s café. Keith soon discovered that the same storefront used to be a travel bookstore owned by Tom Young, who had mysteriously vanished nine months earlier.

The obsession with Tom Young

Tom Young was a former teacher and a Vietnam veteran who, on the morning of September 7th, 1987, told his friends he was traveling to Europe for a vacation. He left Silver Plume with his dog, Gus. Weeks went by without any word from Tom, and he was soon reported missing.

**A missing person poster for Tom Young, a former teacher and Vietnam veteran who vanished from Silver Plume in 1987.**

Investigators quickly learned that Tom never left the country. There was no evidence he had even planned on going to Europe in the weeks leading up to his alleged departure. The mystery intrigued Keith, who began talking to the locals.

Before long, Keith decided to partially base the protagonist of his novel on the missing man. His main character, Guy Gypsum, was a combination of himself and Tom, with many scenes from the book inspired by the information he gathered from Tom’s friends.

Keith was fully dedicated to completing his novel and spent his evenings typing in his apartment. When he wasn’t working at the antique store, Keith also hiked a bit, keeping his promise to get in shape.

On July 31st, 1988, less than two months after Keith arrived in Silver Plume, two hunters discovered Tom’s remains on Republican Mountain, just 1.5 miles south of the town.

Beside Tom were the remains of his dog, Gus. Both had bullet wounds to the head, leading investigators to believe Tom had taken his own life.

A Smith & Wesson revolver was found nearby, and an investigation confirmed that Tom had purchased it four days before he disappeared. The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Department closed the case, ruling it a suicide.

The disappearance

On August 7th, 1988, one week after Tom Young’s remains were discovered, Keith locked up his antique store around 2:30 PM. He spent some time around Silver Plume, telling friends he planned to hike up Pendleton Mountain that afternoon.

Everyone assumed he was joking because it would take him six hours to complete the hike and return to the town.

Furthermore, Keith’s fear of heights was well known among the locals. He had previously attempted to go up Pendleton Mountain but had to turn back because of vertigo. Not to forget, Keith didn’t have the proper hiking gear for the trek.

At 4:00 PM, Keith stopped by Ted’s café, where the two chatted for a while. Surely enough, the plans to go up the nearby mountain were mentioned again. Keith even joked that if he didn’t return, Ted should call for rescue. Just like everyone else he encountered that day, Ted thought his friend was being silly.

Keith was last seen heading out of town in the direction of Pendleton Mountain around 4:30 PM. He didn’t have a jacket on, sporting just a flannel shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. Keith also didn’t carry a backpack, which meant he didn’t have any supplies or equipment.

By the following morning, Ted grew concerned when Keith didn’t open up his antique shop. He was nowhere to be seen, so Ted contacted the local sheriff’s department and shared everything he knew.

Soon, the Colorado Alpine Rescue teams descended on the area, with hundreds of volunteers searching Pendleton Mountain and the surrounding terrain.

Helicopters flew above the thick forests, while search dogs tried to locate the missing man on the ground.

The search continued for a week and was officially called off on August 14th, 1988, after a civil air patrol plane crashed into the mountain, resulting in the death of the pilot, Terry Leadens. No trace of Keith was found on Pendleton.

Keith’s friends searched his apartment and discovered his unfinished novel on the computer.

The final paragraph read: “Guy Gypsum changed into some hiking boots and donned a heavy flannel shirt. He understood Tom now and his motivation. Guy closed the door, then walked off towards the lush, shadowless, Colorado forest above.”

Beside the computer was a newspaper article with the headline: “Tom Young’s Body Found”. These clues led many to speculate that Keith may have chosen to commit suicide, like the bookstore owner. Keith’s wife, Carolyn, believed the suicide theory was unlikely, given her husband’s upbeat and optimistic personality.

As weeks and months passed without any new clues, the case went cold. In 1990, the show Unsolved Mysteries covered Keith Reinhard’s disappearance, which generated a new interest from the public.

Soon, tips began to come in about potential sightings, but law enforcement was unable to confirm any of them.

Theories

Besides the theory that Keith may have committed suicide, several other possibilities have been discussed. For instance, some believe that both Tom and Keith were victims of foul play due to the disturbing parallels between the two cases.

Perhaps both men discovered something they weren’t supposed to know or see, which ultimately led to their deaths.

One detail supporting this theory is the ballistic test performed on the gun found beside Tom. The forensic team was unable to match it to the bullet wounds on Tom and his dog. Keith’s children are firm believers in this theory.

**Keith Reinhard photographed in the Colorado mountains shortly before his disappearance.**

Another possibility is that Keith staged his own disappearance to escape his life. The antique store in Silver Plume wasn’t doing so great, and perhaps he didn’t want to go back to Illinois just to work as a journalist.

According to his friends, Keith expressed a desire to visit West Virginia just days before the disappearance.

However, Carolyn believes her husband would never abandon his children, whom he loved very much and made sure to keep in contact with as frequently as possible.

Death by misadventure was also considered, but Keith was well aware of his hiking abilities, and he probably wouldn’t have pushed himself beyond his limits. After all, he had given up on climbing Pendleton Mountain once before when he felt his vertigo coming on.

Even if he did decide to go hiking on his own, Keith didn’t bring his cameras with him, which was unusual as he loved taking photos of nature and landscapes.

Aftermath

In April 1998, Unsolved Mysteries featured the case of Pat Brown, a man who was discovered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a severe case of amnesia. He was unable to recall details of his previous life, and some viewers noted he resembled Keith. The man was later identified as Carl Broadnik.

In September 2021, two hikers reportedly found Keith’s wallet on Pendleton Mountain. However, there are no official statements made by law enforcement regarding this potential discovery.

It remains unclear if the wallet really belonged to the missing man. Fascinated by the case, those two hikers began filming a documentary about Keith Reinhard’s disappearance.