48 Hours - Post Mortem | Who Took Our Dad? The Abduction of Ray Wright

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Correspondent Natalie Morales and Producer Greg Fisher take you inside their interview with the accused mastermind behind the disappearance of Ray Wright, a family man unknowingly in the center of a terrifying plot for revenge. The two discuss the high speed car chase and the treasure trove of evidence that authorities say linked defendants Bob Manor and Victor Gray to the crime.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I'm Anne-Marie Green, and this is Postmortem. In this week's case, who took our dad, the abduction of Ray Wright? We have an abduction and murder of a family man, a high-speed police chase, and a treasure trove of evidence. man, a high-speed police chase, and a treasure trove of evidence. So here to take us behind the scenes of their reporting is CBS News correspondent and 48 Hours contributor Natalie Morales and

producer Greg Fischer. Natalie, welcome back. And Greg, welcome. Thank you, Emery. Thanks. Great to be here. How did you first learn about this case, Greg? We heard about the conviction. So we went to the sentencing hearing for the two defendants, Victor Gray and Robert Manor, just to evaluate whether this case would work for 48 hours. Both men got life without parole for murder. And I was struck by two things at that sentencing hearing. First of all, what an incredible person Ray Wright must be. He had so many friends and family members who not only testified on his behalf, but each one of them explained what a role Ray played in their lives. And I thought, wow, this is somebody who's impressive, who could be worth a story.

And of course, the second thing I noticed was that Robert Manor, convicted as the mastermind, proclaimed his innocence. He said he felt sorry for the family, but I didn't do it, and I'm going to continue to advocate for my innocence, probably in the appeal. So after the hearing was over, I went down to the jail and he was willing to do an interview. And we called Natalie and the clock was ticking. Yes, because the concern with that, Greg, was that he was going to be transferred to then begin serving his sentence. And once he's transferred to prison, then you cannot get a camera in California into the prison. So for us, it was, we want to be able to do this interview

with him and hear what he has to say now in his defense after the fact that he's been sentenced. And so with that, I kind of started at the end of the story rather than the beginning. Usually I'm getting to know the victim and the victim's families, getting a sense of who they were. And in this case, I'm finding out who this guy, Robert Manor, is and was, who's been convicted of this horrendous crime of kidnapping and killing, as well as Victor Gray, the other man who is convicted as his accomplice as well in this. All right, so you started at the end.

I want to play a short recap of the episode. Ray Wright's daughters, Kennedy and Haley, were worried. It was January of 2018, and for days, no one had been able to reach their dad. And it was really scary. He hadn't shown up at his carpentry shop, didn't answer calls or texts. I knew something bad was happening to him. I felt it. Ray's brother Dean felt it too. He headed to his brother's house and looked around and that's when he realized someone was in the house.

And it wasn't Ray. And I said, who are you? Where's Ray? The intruder fled, says prosecutor Matt Chisholm, but left behind this soda cup on the kitchen counter. In which we get some key forensic evidence. But investigators did not know

who the intruder was. And then, weeks later, a police officer noticed a suspicious vehicle and gave chase. It was a very dangerous high-speed chase, speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. There was a terrible accident at the end of that pursuit. The driver was a man named Victor Gray. And in his wrecked van, a black tarp filled with evidence. Sergeant Zach Lewis. This is huge for us. The hat.

Pull that hat out. Ray Wright design. The yellow rain jacket. That is Ray Wright's jacket. His DNA was found on that jacket. And in Victor Gray's cell phone, prosecutors say a photograph of a letter Gray wrote to a man named Bob. Victor Gray was demanding payment for delivering the dude to Bob. Those are his words, the dude. Yeah, I hand delivered you your revenge. To authorities, it sounded like Victor had abducted Ray at Bob's request, but they had no idea who Bob was or why he would want revenge.

The story starts off with one mystery, where is Ray Wright? But as the events unfold, it becomes clear there are several mysteries here that need to be uncovered. Yeah, I mean, there really was this chain of events and almost coincidences that had to happen. Of course, where is Ray was mystery number one. But then it was, who is this guy, Victor Gray? And why are all of Ray Wright's belongings in Victor Gray's now beat up, burnt out van. And then they discover, you know, on Victor Gray's cell phone, this mysterious letter to this guy named Bob. And who is this guy named Bob? Yeah. There's a lot of talk of revenge. It comes up a lot

in the broadcast. From your interviews and your reporting, could you speak to the revenge Bob Manor might have been seeking by murdering Ray Wright? Yes. So if you recall in the episode, there was an accident that Ray Wright was involved in. He was driving under the influence back in November of 2011, and he happened to hit Bob Manor and his wife in their car. She nearly died. He suffered horrific injuries that to this day, he still walks with a limp and apparently has lingering pain from that. And because of that, prosecutors said it was something that continued to fester within him. Ray Wright did end up serving time, being under the influence for that incident,

but he also had to pay more than $275,000 in restitution to Bob and his wife for the accident. However, he was unable to make a lot of those payments. So prosecutors said that the motive was plain and simple, that Bob Manor was seeking revenge. From that moment of that car accident and moving forward, Bob Manor and Ray Wright would be tragically connected and sadly inextricably linked in this horrific way. So there's some things about Ray that didn't get into the hour.

Yeah, I mean, Greg uncovered a fascinating story about his past. So what's interesting is that Ray was this fabulous builder. He had real skill and real talent, incredibly creative, and he would design and build these gorgeous homes. But he was also a musician. He was a drummer. And when he was young and he was playing around the Sacramento

area, he gigged with Alanis Morissette before she was famous. And they were friends. But so some people associated with Alanis Morissette went into business with Bray and financed developments where he built homes. And during the housing boom, he made a lot of money. They were, you know, pretty well off. And then when the housing boom went bad, you know, Ray wasn't making that kind of money anymore. He moved back to Sacramento. He caused that drunk driving accident and he wasn't doing so well. But he had that history. And I think Bob Manor didn't quite understand how Ray's life had taken a turn. And he didn't understand why he wasn't getting some payment from him. And that's actually interesting. Victor Gray, he broke into the home and there was

one item that was missing and that was a ledger. And that ledger was believed to be accounts, you know, that Ray kept. And so it's believed that, you know, Victor Gray and Bob Manor didn't believe Ray's story that he didn't have money. Natalie brought up Victor Gray. So we're going to talk about that.

And he's another character involved in this plot. When we get back, we're going to discuss the unusual soda cup found at the crime scene, the high speed chase, the treasure trove of evidence found in Gray's van. And because Ray's remains have never been found, is this case really over? Stay tuned. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours. and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence.

Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, ad-free on Amazon Music. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy

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you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just The Best Idea Yet. Welcome back. So there was an amazing clue that was left behind at Ray's house. Greg, can you just talk a little bit more about this evidence and what it meant for the case? When police were called to the home that an intruder had been there, the intruder left behind a gas station soda cup that he'd been drinking from. So police bagged it and ran a DNA check on it. But when the DNA check came back, ran a DNA check on it. But when the DNA check came back, that's when they realized that Victor Gray,

the man from that accident, was the person who'd been in the home. It answered many questions, but also gave them many questions, I suppose. Yes, because they, you know, now they know, okay, so Victor Gray is connected to Ray Wright, because of course, they have him as the intruder at Ray Wright's home. But now they have Ray Wright's belongings. We went with the police and looked in their files, you know, as they pulled out baggie after baggie of each tragic piece of Ray Wright's life. And it's a life, you know, that you could just tell ended so horrifically. There was a yellow rain slicker covered in bloodstains, his shattered eyeglasses. His daughters talked about seeing those eyeglasses in court when, you know, the prosecutors pulled that out

as evidence. That just shattered them, seeing those shattered glasses and the Ray Wright Designs ball cap that Ray always wore. They knew in that moment, Victor Gray has something to do with Ray Wright's disappearance. And then of course, the true piece of evidence that came forward for them was his cell phone. They found not just Ray Wright's crushed cell phone in the accident, but Victor Gray's cell phone. And on that cell phone is that three page letter that, you know, spells it all out for investigators. I want to play some sound from the hour. It's a clip from Prosecutor Matches describing what was written in the letter.

It was dated January 27th, the same day as Gray's ill-fated chase with police. the same day as Gray's ill-fated chase with police. And it's clear that Victor has grievances with Bob. And the grievances stem about not being paid for delivering the dude to you. Those are his words, the dude. Yeah. I hand-delivered you your revenge. Now it's time to pay me. Victor Gray. He never admitted to actually writing that letter and his attorneys

suggested that maybe it was planted on the phone. You know, there's a lot of ways to interpret it. But Victor Gray never talked to police. He didn't testify at trial. He didn't talk to us. So we don't really have Victor Gray's side about that letter. You had to just infer from reading it, and it's clearly a veiled threat to Bob. You got to wonder if this case would have come together the way it did if he just didn't take a picture of that letter. come together the way it did if he just didn't take a picture of that letter, if the name Bob just didn't come up the way that it did.

Prosecutors said, how about if Bob Manor had just paid Victor Gray what he was promised? It was all of $10,000, the life of a man, Ray Wright, for $10,000. Had that payment happened, prosecutors said this case would not be solved the way it's been solved. Prosecutors said there's some irony in Bob sort of being upset about not being paid restitution. Yet, you know, he allegedly stiffs Victor and the entire scheme is unraveled. Absolutely. That's a great point. Yeah, that's I hadn't really thought of it that way. But I think you're exactly correct. If you look at the case in its entirety, could anyone have hired a bigger bungler to pull off criminal activity than Victor Gray? I mean, to go into Ray's house smoking marijuana while he's supposed to be

committing a burglary, to leave the key evidence that unraveled the case behind, to be driving around with guns and drugs in your car and all this highly sensitive murder evidence wrapped up in the back of your car, to leave a copy of that letter on his phone, to have text messages with the lookout that he never even bothered to delete from his phone, to have conversations with people that visited him in the jail that gave away key clues, even though all your conversations are being recorded when you have people come to visit. You know, he's not anybody's partner in crime for anything that you want to get away with. In March of 2021, prosecutors charged Bob Manor and Victor Gray with the kidnapping and murder of Ray Wright,

even though police had yet to find Ray's body. Both men pleaded not guilty and to this day still maintain their innocence. The trial finally began in March of 2023, more than five years after Ray Wright went missing. Can we talk a little bit more about Bob's defense here? You know, I heard this many times from convicted criminals,

this idea that there's no direct evidence linking me to the crime. That's what Bob was jumping up and down talking about in the jail to Natalie. And of course, defense attorneys make that argument in court. But what these criminals forget is that there can be a mountain of circumstantial evidence. And of course, that's why the jury decided to convict Bob Manor. And during the time that you were speaking to Bob, I mean, did he talk at all about how much the accident disrupted his life? Did he give sort of an inkling as to whether or not he had revenge on his mind, even though he says he had nothing to do with this? I mean, he would not go down that road.

He was more about, you know, I'm innocent. There's no body. There's no body. Therefore, Ray Wright, you know, disappeared. I have nothing to do with it. How difficult is it to bring a murder case to trial without a body? You know, I think the prosecutor, Matt Chisholm, said it best. He, in presenting his case, he looked at the jury and he said, think about this. All that you know about this man, Ray Wright, the kind of father he was, the kind of grandfather he was, he was the kind of guy that would pick up the phone and call his brother every day they talked to one another. Would he disappear? How else do you explain it except that the man is dead?

And do you need a body to make that point? When you have all of these pieces of his life, his belongings, and all of the circumstantial evidence that points at exactly these two defendants and this monster motive, which is revenge. Obviously, when you have the body, you know certain things about the facts of the murder that are missing with a no-body case. But, you know, there are two developments that go hand in hand, and it's really the digital society that we live in,

where there's so much to track people and people's activity. Whereas 30 years ago, if you said, well, we haven't heard from Ray, you know, you didn't have the ability to check his bank accounts instantly and to track a cell phone. And that is matched with forensic developments along those same lines that police can use to establish facts and to demonstrate a case that really weren't available 30 or 40 years ago, or even to some extent, 20 years ago. And so I think that is a lot of the reason that nobody cases are very solvable these days. Not only evidence, but witnesses who testify that Bob Manor told them, I got him. I got him. Now, the prosecutor did face the challenge that, first of all,

the witnesses, a lot of them felt that they would be threatened or their lives would be threatened by speaking. So there was that concern, but also their credibility would come into question. And that certainly is where, you know, the defense, their strategy was going after how credible are these witnesses. I found Ray's family particularly moving. Can you talk to me about what it was like to sit down with his family? They're still yearning for sort of that their pain, their grief. They still live with that daily. His daughters, you know, one of them has a daughter, Ashton, you know, always asking about grandpa. And, you know, they live with that pain every day. And Peggy, his ex-wife, talks about Ray still to this day as the love of her life. You know, this was a tight-knit family despite what life circumstances dealt them. So Bob Manor and Victor Gray were found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping,

and both were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Do you think if they never find his body, will this be enough? Will it be enough that Bob Manor and Victor Gray are behind bars, or will there always be that bit of emptiness? I think there will always be that piece that is missing in their lives. The police did say that that part of this investigation still remains open. You know, they are still wanting and seeking answers

as to where Ray's remains may be. I think there's hope that at some point, someone will speak or say something to investigators. But as far as closure is concerned, this is a family that will always live with this and knowing that the man they love so much is now missing from their lives. For now though, you know,

I think the family lives with the memories that they have. And just to add one more thing, he was a guy who, yes, he had this DUI, but that was such a turning point in his life. I mean, that was rock bottom. And his daughters all remember that's when Ray got himself together and he was sober and, you know, he really made the best of the life that he lived after that moment. Yeah, he course corrected. Any final thoughts on this case from both of you? Ray was such a special person because he really was a leader for his family. What was significant for me was just how Ray's murder left such a hole in each of these person's lives. Their lives are just not complete on a day-to-day basis without Ray.

Yeah, definitely. Well, one thing I know for sure is that if there are any developments in this case, 48 hours, we'll be all over it because that's what you do. Natalie, Greg, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks again for having us on, Anne-Marie. Thanks a lot. Join us next Tuesday for another Postmortem and watch 48 Hours, Saturdays, 10, 9 Central

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