Going West: True Crime - Keith Reinhard // 120

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

In the summer of 1988, a Chicago-based journalist left the city life to write a novel in a small, Colorado mining town. After he arrived, he opened up an antique shop and discovered that the previous tenant had disappeared the year prior. But while he began investigating the mans disappearance for his book, he disappeared himself. And this led to one of the biggest searches in Colorado history. This is the story of Keith Reinhard. *BONUS EPISODES* patron.com/goingwestpodcast *CASE SOURCES* https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Illinois/Keith-R-Reinhard_53gt65 https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-11-25-0111250214-story.html https://clustrmaps.com/person/Reinhard-aiff98 https://charleyproject.org/case/keith-r-reinhard https://unsolved.com/gallery/keith-reinhard/ https://www.strangeoutdoors.com/mysterious-stories-blog/keith-reinhard https://www.darksidedoc.com ( https://www.darksidedoc.com/ ) https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-ent-keith-reinhard-travel-channel-lost-in-the-wild-20200109-qlumhdkyvzeidj7xdlo5ugorh4-story.html https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Keith_Reinhard https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/journalist-who-disappeared-while-writing-novel-about-missing-person-case-a85615784998 https://echoespath.com/keith-reinhard/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host Teeth and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Thank you everybody for tuning in today, hope everyone's having a great week so far. We just wanted to let you guys know about our Patreon. This show is only made possible by our patrons. So we really appreciate everybody who heads over to patreon.com slash going west podcast and subscribe. And we have over 40 bonus episodes total on there for you guys to binge.

Yeah, and more coming every single month. So if you guys want some bonus episodes and you're loving going west, but you need more head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast and just subscribe. He's found a really great case for us for our first episode of the month and it's coming out this week, so stay tuned.

Today's case that we're covering is like struck me as super interesting right away. I'm a person who really loves a good mystery, and this case is exactly that, like it sounds like it would be a book. And a small town mystery at that. Exactly, so let's go. All right guys, this is episode 120 of Going West,

so let's get into it. In the summer of 1988, a Chicago-based journalist left the city life to write a novel in a small Colorado mining town. After he arrived, he opened up an antique shop and discovered that the previous tenant had disappeared the year prior. But while he began investigating the man's disappearance for his book, he disappeared himself, and this led to one of the biggest searches in Colorado history. This is the story of Keith Reinhard was born on September 5, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Ruth and

John Reinhard, and a few years later, he got a sister named Lynn. Keith went on to marry a German woman named Astrid and they had a son Sven in May of 1962 in Bitberg, Germany when Keith was 22 and Astrid was 19. And as Keith was stationed in Germany during his service in the US Army, Sven was born on a US Air Force Base. But after spending some time in Germany, they took their baby Sven back to Illinois where they had another son named Kai and then a daughter named Tiffany. And while Astrid was home raising their beautiful kids, Keith worked at a Chicago-based newspaper, The Daily Herald, you might have heard of it, as a sports journalist.

At some point though, he and Astrid did get a divorce and in 1985, when Keith was 46 years old, he married a woman named Carolyn. But 22 years into his career and shortly after his youngest child had become an adult of her own, Keith began to feel like something was missing in his life. He had a pretty successful career reporting on high school sports games and the like in a Chicago suburb. But with his 50th birthday approaching, he dreamed of taking time off, finding himself and writing a novel. So doing this didn't mean that he was leaving his wife and family behind by any means, but after speaking with an old friend named Ted Parker on the phone, Keith uncovered the beautiful little town of Silver Plume Colorado.

And this town is so... Oh man. It's gorgeous. It's very, very cute. So, Ted owned a cafe there called KP Cafe on Main Street known for its coffee and pastries, and updated Keith all about his life in Silver Plume. Silver Plume Colorado, which was previously known for mining, is known as a living ghost town, and it's

just under two hours drive west of Denver. There's under 200 people living there today, and back in 1988, there was only about 134 people. So the population really hasn't changed much at all, and in fact, after the silver crash in the 1890s, the population has been extremely low since then. Not only does the town have a dark history as far as mysterious deaths go, but it's a very literally dark place, and in the dead of winter, the south side of town doesn't see any direct sunlight for about six weeks each year because of the placement of Pendleton Mountain, and sees limited sunlight five whole months out of the year. But because of its old western style charm, it definitely attracts tourists as well as your

occasional artist. Hence the appeal that brought Keith to town. Keith was extremely interested in the idea of living in this small mountain town seemingly stuck in the late 1800s. It was the perfect tranquil setting for some much needed time off from his bustling city life. So Keith decided to take just a three-month sabbatical to write his book and experience something completely new. Although Keith stood at 6'2 and weighed just about 210 pounds, he also had an interest in losing some weight, so he thought maybe being surrounded by the Rocky Mountains could

help him get into hiking while also inspiring him to write an interesting book. After kind of saying goodbye for now to his hesitant and somewhat worried wife Carolyn in June of 1988, Keith headed off to Silver Plume. Right next door to his friend's head's cafe was a vacant building that had previously been a book shop, and in an effort to make ends meet and even potentially have an interesting short-lived business, Keith rented out the space to sell antiques as well as his own photographs. And on the other side of Keith was actually

an abandoned Catholic church. And in the back of that church was an apartment in which Keith rented, which for reference was on the south side of town, so the side and to describe the town better it looks like there's a few establishments in the town altogether this point in time like in 2021 there's a museum a church a historic hotel an auto repair shop a post office a coffee shop and a bar like all inside very historic western style buildings, but that's it. So there obviously used to be Keith's antique shop, which was right next to his friend

Ted's Cafe, but both are gone now just leaving a coffee shop and a bar. And the bar is up the street, but the coffee shop is in the place of Ted's Cafe, and nothing currently stands in place of Keith's antique shop. But I will add that less than 10 minutes away is a larger town called Georgetown, which hosts 1100 people now, and about 900 people back in 1988. And Georgetown has a handful of restaurants and numerous other businesses, so at least that's close by, but that kind of gives you an idea of how small silver plume really is. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just one of those tiny towns kind of seemingly out in the middle of the mountains.

And for Keith, this was a perfect opportunity for him to have this peaceful, writers life. When 49-year-old Keith got to town and began setting up his own business, he learned the story of the previous tenant who had the bookshop. The man was 47-year-old Tom Young, and he owned and ran a shop called Charing Cross Station Bookstore with his sidekick, a Labrador dog named Gus. Tom was an army veteran turned high school art teacher in Arvada, Colorado. And at the age of 30 in 1969, he made the move to the small town of Silver Plume and opened up his bookshop to live a kind of peaceful life in the mountains, much like Keith. Locals who knew Tom, and of course it wasn't very hard to know

everyone since there was only 130 people in this town, said that he was always with his dog and usually kept to himself. He was known to be pretty eccentric and creative as well. He seemed very happy with his life, which consisted of selling books and walking in the mountains with his dog Gus. But on Monday, September 7, 1987, Tom vanished. He had told some friends that he was going to spend some time in Europe, so many believed that he was just on vacation, but when they didn't hear from him for a while, they got concerned. But his family knew nothing about a trip and didn't have any idea where he could be,

so they called the police to look into his disappearance. And by the way, some people did come forward and say that Tom said he was going to take us on a walk that day. They just didn't know where, so kind of mixed signals here of where is Tom. Tom wasn't in his home and neither was Gus and when the police checked a dog boarding can all that Tom used whenever he would travel far, they didn't find Gus there. On top of that, there was no record of Tom purchasing a plane ticket. Tom and Gus were best buddies and they did almost everything together.

And since they were both missing, locals felt stumped as to where he could be, especially since his Chevy Blazer was still outside his shop. Tom's 75-year-old mother even flew out to Colorado from her home in California to help look for him and take care of some things in his home and business. And after that, his case pretty much went cold, but it really baffled the sheriff as well as all the residents. So when Keith got to town and heard whisperings of Tom's

disappearance just nine months prior, he wanted to learn all about it. And on top of that, this actually inspired Keith's novel, because when he got to Silver Plume, he didn't know what the theme of his book was going to be. He had one idea but completely abandoned this idea when he learned of Tom's case, and he used conversations with the local townspeople to write a fictional story on his computer about a character named Guy Gypsum, who was very similar to both himself as well as Tom Young. Keith spent his days hiking, riding, and talking to the locals, sometimes at the local watering hole for a drink or two. But on July 31, 1988, so a little over a month into Keith's stay, a conclusion was reached in Tom's case, and

it only made Keith more interested. Ten months after Tom Young had last been seen, some local hunters found two skeletons lying near a tree and the mountains behind Silver Plume, which was about an hour's hike from town. They were covered up by a tarp and both had a single bullet in their skulls. Soon after the discovery was made, investigators concluded that the remains belonged to Tom Young and his dog Gus. Next to the remains was a Smith & Wesson Model 36 gun as well as a backpack. Four days before Tom's disappearance, he had purchased that gun, so police began to believe

that Tom had gone out for a hike, shot his dog Gus, and then shot himself. And after a corner conducted an autopsy on Tom's skeletal remains, they ruled his death a suicide. But many locals were extremely skeptical of this ruling, because it was hard for them, as well as Tom's close friends and family, to believe that Tom would have just gone off and done this to himself but also to his dog Gus. He and Gus were inseparable, and no one could see him hurting, let alone killing him. It also stumped them as to why there was a tarp covering the bodies.

But unfortunately, no ballistic tests were conducted to determine whether or not the bullets that killed Tom and Gus were from Tom's revolver. See, this is what I really don't understand. Why would you not test that to make sure? I mean, then you could almost completely confirm this 100%. Here's the thing, I understand why they're looking at this and they're like clearly at the suicide He's up near a tree. He's right next to his dog to single shot to the head for both of them I get it. You're like oh suicide, but I feel like that was

Almost a cop out and I know a lot of you are probably like okay stop reaching it was probably just a suicide We'll get more into this later But to me, I'm like just do the test and I feel like maybe because of money they were like this is clearly a suicide to us so we're not going to look into it further because it's going to cost us a lot and the end result will probably be the same but it's like you don't know that. And again we have to talk about that tarp. The tarp. What? No. How? How? There's no way you can't kill yourself and then cover your Your fucking body with a tarp. It doesn't work They were both under the tarp and then he like close range shoots his dog in the head and then shoots himself

Like just like that makes no sense. I guess I mean I guess I could see how that would be possible. I just don't understand why that would happen or why you would cover yourself with a tarp and then shoot yourself. To me, the tarp is like a good indicator of let's look into this further, but they didn't. So a few weeks after Tom's remains were found, on August 3, 1988, a memorial for him was held locally and Keith Reinhardt attended. That morning Keith had reached out to the daily herald to express his desire to cover a story on the then 25-year-old Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

So although Keith was hard at work on his novel and knee-deep in Colorado living, he was also looking towards his return to Chicago later the following month. A few days later on Saturday, August 6, there was a party held at the KP Cafe next door that was hosted by a Denver Colorado radio station, which again is just about a two-hour drive east from Silver Plume, and Keith went to this as well. There he was seen talking to an unknown woman for a period of time, and he was also known to be going around discussing his views on Tom Young's case, which included his heavy belief that Tom did not commit suicide.

By the way, before Keith left for this trip, he told his wife Carolyn that if he loved it, he wanted her to join him there for an official move. And this was based on his quality of life in Silver Plume, as well as the success of his antique shop. But at this time, nearly two months into his trip, the antique shop wasn't doing very well and was actually more of a burden. So he was definitely thinking about returning to Chicago instead of remaining in Silver Plume for more than his original three month trip. And I mean, this makes sense, you know, this, like I said, there's like less than 10 businesses in this town. That's what I was gonna say.

It's like, in a teak shop, like, nobody really wants that. Yeah, you're not really gonna expect to make a whole lot of money because there's probably not a lot of people traveling through Silver Plume, let alone the people who live there trying to buy antiques. I mean, who doesn't love a good antiqueshop to go shopping, but I just feel like it's not the best business to start there.

And, you know, if that's what he wanted to do, he should follow the passion. But it wasn't proving to be successful at all. And he was working behind the counter. Like, he was the guy in the shop every day who had to open and close and help all the customers and do that. He's like, what am I doing? I want to be a writer.

I want to be out there hiking. I want to be talking to people and hanging out. I don't want to be sitting in this musty shop. So he was kind of realizing that wasn't the best idea. So the following day, which was Sunday, August 7, 1988, Keith told some friends in Silver Plume that he planned to head out for a hike later that day, which is something he had been enjoying since arriving there. So at around 5 p.m., he closed up his antique shop with an apparent plan to hike to the

top of Pendleton Mountain, the same mountain that Tom Young's body had been found on. And in fact, his exact words to his buddy Ted were, I'm going to make it to the top of that mountain. If I don't come back, call on the rescue. Oh, that's so eerie considering what we know about Tom Young. Well, I know, but Ted later explained that Keith said this in kind of a lighthearted tone, and then he was off, you know, like he didn't say, if I don't come back, call the rescue, it was kind of like, if I don't come back, call the rescue, you know, it was kind of like a funnier like, you

know, I don't know. Yeah, I get what you're saying, but definitely some strange foreshadowing. I mean, absolutely. So the strange thing is the hike would have taken Keith about 6 hours total, meaning he wouldn't get home until at least 10 pm. It being August, the sunset just after 8 pm that day, which would equate to around 2-3 hours of hiking in the dark. And on top of that, Keith didn't have any gear on him whatsoever, just the clothes on his back, which was a t-shirt, a red and

black flannel, blue jeans and sneakers. After Keith headed out the doors of the cafe, he was going to hike to the top of Pendleton Mountain, Ted almost thought he was joking, especially since he didn't have any gear on him. I mean, if you're gonna go on a hike and you expect to be out for six hours, you're gonna at least bring like a backpack with water and some granola and or something. Yeah, exactly. Like, this is just weird. Yeah, exactly. So this passing comment before leaving didn't concern Ted because he really just

didn't feel like Keith was actually going to do it. Keith had a pretty big fear of heights, which he had been hoping to overcome on this trip, but the top of the mountain peaked at 12,500 feet. And Keith had done a good deal of hiking while he was in Silver Plume, but the hike up to the mountain wasn't an easy one, and he always seemed to fall short of reaching the top of the mountain during his hikes. And as we said, it was about a 5-6 hour total distance. And it was the evening, so it would make it incredibly hard to see. Also Keith wasn't necessarily in the best shape, and he even had a bit of a hangover

that day from the radio show party. So Keith heading out on this hike didn't make sense. Either way, Keith didn't come back that night. And the following morning, when Ted checked on Keith, he still was not home. At that point, Ted became extremely worried, wondering if his friend really did go on that hike, and how it was that he wasn't yet back. So he reported him missing that day and explained the police the circumstances. Although Keith was an adult, there was a concern that Keith had gotten injured while hiking and could be in danger, so the search for him began almost immediately.

First police conducted various interviews of people in the town of Silver Plume to get the story straight. But as this was happening, Colorado's Alpine Rescue Team conducted a vast search of Pendleton Mountain for Keith. And over the next week, nearly 200 volunteers came together and searched for a total of 10,000 man hours for Keith by plane, helicopter, and ground with cadaver dogs, but not a single piece of evidence was found. Other nearby mountains, including Sherman Mountain and Republican Mountain, were also searched,

but again, nothing was discovered. A man named Charlie Shamansky, who was the head of the rescue team, said, the Reinhardt search was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. This haystack is 3,000 vertical feet of 60 degrees slope. This was about as difficult a search terrain as we cover. We were at a real disadvantage because Keith went into the mountains wearing no more than blue jeans and a flannel shirt and tennis shoes. He had no backpack and he had no equipment. A typical subject of a search

will leave lots of clues for us to trace. Keith didn't leave many clues. He didn't have many with him to leave behind. A bloodhound did pick up on Keith sent twice. The first was at a silver plume apartment and the trail led to a railroad grade and then up towards Pendleton Mountain. But due to the elevation, it was too dangerous to continue going up the mountain since the dog wasn't acclimated. And then the same bloodhound picked up on Keith's scent really strong around another part of the mountain. So they focused their searches accordingly, but again, nothing came up.

And sadly during the mission, a plane carrying a spotter named Don Drobney and a pilot named Terry Leedons crashed into Pendleton Mountain four days into the search, killing Terry and severely injuring Don. So the search was eventually called off. This was one of the largest searches conducted in Colorado history, so they really searched. And they felt confident that if Keith was on that mountain, dead or alive, they would have found him. When investigators checked Keith's apartment for evidence, they came across his computer, where he was writing his novel, and the last thing written was the following. Guy jipped some changed into some hiking boots and dawned a heavy flannel shirt.

He understood it all now, and his motivation. Guy closed the door, then walked off towards the lush, shadowless Colorado Forest above. There were two film cameras in Keith's apartment, and investigators had the film in both cameras developed, but this didn't bring any further clues. When his family was informed of what happened, they knew that something had happened to Keith accidentally, or he had been met with foul play. Because Keith was incredibly happy with his life and would have never left them like that. I mean, he had three kids, he had a wife like, sure he had a three month trip, but this

didn't indicate in any way that he wanted out of his actual life. He loved his wife, he loved his children, and he was very set on finishing his book and seeing what was next. Keith's book was clearly not finished, and his wife Carolyn actually had planned a trip out to Silver Plume, just a couple days later on August 11th, which was something they were both really looking forward to. I think that this is so interesting, and I think a lot of times what writers do is they

try to put themselves in the position of the character in their book, and I'm kind of assuming that's maybe what Keith was doing, he's like, I am going to be guy in this situation and I'm going to go hike up this mountain in a flannel shirt to kind of like get a sense of my character. Because I mean, why would you plan a trip with your wife coming in a few days and then just disappear? Yeah, him disappearing or wanting to, I mean, it's very romantic in a sense to think about, oh, he wrote about this and then he was often he disappeared and how crazy of a coincidence is that it had to have been romantic in a sense to think about, oh he wrote about this and then he was often

he disappeared and how crazy of a coincidence is that it had to have been on purpose. But I just don't see that being true. Keith's family was incredibly devastated by his disappearance and to this day he has never been found. He's now been missing for 32 years and this year he would be turning 83 years old. In 2001, Keith Sunsven, who was previously in the US Navy and who had later gone on to work as a freelance production accountant for movies, died tragically at the age of 39 of carbon monoxide poisoning. In 2018, Keith's other son Kai got a big group together including a forensic scientist, Kammer Crew, and even former member of the Alpine Rescue Team

that had searched for Keith nearly 30 years prior to renew the search for his father. They came across a scapula bone buried on Pendleton Mountain along with some other bones but they were later determined to belong to an animal. Ultimately, this group, including a couple bloodhounds, weren't able to find any clues as to what happened to Keith. Kai placed a plaque there at the mountain that says, In loving memory of our father, Keith Raymond Reinhardt,

And then there's a quote underneath that's something Keith once wrote. It says, Oh God, I want to wander, I want to wander until I die. With the mountains as my living room, my only roof is the sky. And I think it's really special that Kai, who at this point in the story and now is in his 50s, surpassing his father's lifespan, was able to go and literally walk in his father's footsteps to try to figure out what happened to him. And as sad as it is that they didn't find anything, I'm sure the rest of the family really appreciated the effort, and that Kai felt close to his dad.

So now let's discuss some of the thoughts surrounding this case. First off, retracing the steps of Tad, let's start with the party the night before. Again it was for a Denver radio station and we know that Keith was kinda gabbin about Tom Young's death not being a suicide. We also know he was seen talking to an unknown woman at the party. Her name is thought to have been Greta or Gretchin, but no one has come out for sure on that. And a bunch of people that I found online, they put a lot of weight on this whole thing of him speaking to this woman, and I don't personally understand it because she could

have just been some lady. I feel like it's unlikely that someone at that party that had nothing to do with Tom had killed Tom and then killed Keith, but I will say, she never came forward to tell police about their conversation, and that's weird, because this story was everywhere, so why wouldn't she come forward? Little odd. So we don't know whether or not this woman was from Denver or if she was from Silver Plume, I would assume that if she's from Silver Plume, I would assume that if she's from Silver Plume,

she would have come forward knowing that the man that she had just talked to the night before has disappeared. I'm assuming she's not because, again, this town is only 140 people and everybody knows everyone and nobody knew this woman. Like, nobody had seen her, somebody said, oh, I think her name was Greta or Gretchen, but other than that, it was like, she's probably from Denver and she's with the radio station, but they couldn't track her down. That makes a lot of sense, actually, now that I'm thinking about it because, yeah, I mean, 140 people,

you probably know every single person in that town. Right, so that's why I'm kind of like, I don't want to put too much weight on this because it was just a conversation at a party, but I do know that he was talking about Tom Young's death, that's obviously worth mentioning but I don't know. I don't know if this holds too much weight. And let's think about the situation that this woman is at this Denver radio station party in Silver Plume, Little Small Town. She probably doesn't know anything about Tom Young's case anyway, so I don't know why they're... yeah I agree with you,

I don't know why there's so much weight put on to this one theory. And that's a really good point because Keith's case was way more publicized than Tom's case. I mean obviously it was one of the largest searches in Colorado history, so yeah I don't really put too much weight here. And whether or not you believe that people exist out there with psychic abilities or senses, we'll mention that the police did use psychics in this case. And they did this very early on in the investigation, because the psychic is the one who pointed police in the direction that they should be looking for Keith. And in fact, the area that the psychic had been most specific about is the area where the bloodhound

ultimately caught Keith's scent. This also led to a shoe print that was believed to be Keith's, but it didn't bring any more clues. I think it's really interesting. I kind of like when police bring psychics in and when they kind of look at all the possibilities and options. The other options, yeah. Yeah, and I think it's interesting that the psychic was able to point them in kind of

the right direction, but nothing really came about from this. But as far as possible wildlife attacks go, let's discuss the known predators in this area. Black bears, wolverines, and mountain lions have been spotted on Pendleton Mountain, but as many of us know, particularly black bears and wolverines aren't known to attack humans. Mountain lions are known to be more of a rare sighting, and in fact you are more likely to be killed by a pet dog, killed in your bathtub or struck by lightning, than attacked

and killed by a mountain lion. Because they avoid humans which is why sightings are super rare. So let's just say, hypothetically, Keith was attacked by one of these animals. And as gruesome as it sounds, you know, they're not gonna consume every bit of him, like say a wild boar, because as a lot of us know, or maybe have heard or speculated in other true crime cases,

boars really don't leave anything behind. And I actually read this morning that like a small group of bores can eat a 200 pound human, fully, fully just eat every bit of them in eight minutes. Wow, I did not know that information, but that's really fucking interesting. Yeah, this article I read was like don't trust a man who owns a pig farm. Oh my god. So yeah, I really, really kind of a man who owns a pig farm. I was like, oh my god. Oh my god. So yeah, I really, really kind of scary if you think about it, but there was no wild

boars on this mountain, so forget about them. Keith's in the clear with the boars. Exactly. And also, I will add, it said that locals and officials look to the mountain during the day to see if they notice just swarming of birds to indicate that Keith's remains had been out there somewhere, but no one ever saw any. Meaning, if Keith had been attacked by an animal, it seems very likely that his remains would have been found during that initial first week.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I mean, thinking about the fact that nobody saw any vultures or anything like that surrounding a body and they didn't find any remains like you would imagine if Keith was attacked by a bear or a mountain lion There would probably be like a shoe left behind or his planal shirt left behind or something They would indicate an animal attack and that's that's the whole point of discussing this is that We want you guys to know what kind of animals are in that area and that this really doesn't seem likely. And if you're from that area or you know the area or you know a lot about wildlife,

feel free to message us, but from our research, this seemed very unlikely. And there are obviously a lot of people who question both Tom Young's death as well as Keith's disappearance, and many even believe that they're connected. In 2018, Keith's son Kai stated, I think my dad stumbled across something and he just knew too much, and that's why he disappeared. I think it's so interesting that his son says that. Because, you know, obviously this is a true crime podcast, where our heads are kind of going that way anyway, but the fact that his son says that?

I don't know, and I also, I gotta say, I think it's awfully suspicious that Keith disappeared one week after Tom's body was found. And Kai also said that he thinks Tom Young was also met with foul play. And he, many family members and a lot of close friends of Keith's believe to this day that he had been digging too deep into Tom's case and was met with foul play because of it. I mean I remember when you first told me this story and you were doing research on it. I was, my mind was going to, yeah that seems plausible like maybe Keith was just getting too close to Tom Young's case and whoever killed Tom Young wanted to silence Keith because Keith was just getting too close to Tom Young's case and whoever killed Tom Young

wanted to silence Keith because Keith was kind of digging into it. Well, you want to hear a really interesting angle. So Silver Plume, being an old mining town, has many minds and they were searched originally as well as over the years for any sign of Keith, but it got a bit dangerous. And many locals believe that Tom and Keith both stumbled upon a dark secret, that radioactive waste from rocky flats was potentially being dumped into old mines in the Silver Plume area. So a man named Mike Eckles, I think that's how you pronounce it, wrote a book about the

potential nuclear dumping, and here is a small excerpt of his writing. That fall, my auto mechanic Roger Holman told me that on several occasions during the early morning hours, he had seen a large truck driving up the dead end road by his house. He said that the trucks were carrying nuclear waste from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant 30 miles away, waste which was being dumped into the shaft of the supposedly abandoned mine. I did keep my mouth shut, except for telling two acquaintances, fellow freelance writer Sarah

Lady and silver plume bookstore owner and political activist Tom Young. I mean, that's definitely an angle and probably motivation to keep someone quiet. Yeah, I totally agree. And also, so because of Tom's time in the US Army, he was not only a trained medic, but a nuclear weapons expert. So him learning about a nuclear waste dump could have been a really big deal to him, especially if it was happening in his beautiful little town. And as we briefly touched on in the beginning of this episode, Keith served in the US Army and had been stationed in West Germany

in the early 1960s, but it turns out so was Tom Young. So many speculate that maybe Keith either previously knew Tom or felt a need to explore his story because of their connection. Yeah, I think it's definitely very interesting, but I also think the fact that there's so many minds in that area kind of lead me to believe, I don't know, maybe this is just my mind going. Mine scared me. Oh my God, yeah, and we've talked about minds in the past

and spulunking and all that stuff, which is really crazy. Spulunking. Yeah, you know, the people who go explore caves. Oh. And like old mine chaps and stuff. For God. Yeah, and remember we covered that case about it. The Aaron Corwin.

Yes, yes, that case. Aaron Corwin and then also Susan Powell. Yes, yes, absolutely. So my mind kind of goes to maybe Keith was out there hiking and he potentially fell into one of these shafts and it was too dangerous to go in there. I mean literally when people go into mind shafts and caves and stuff like that, some of them get in there and their bodies are never recovered. I mean, especially if they're deep and because sometimes it's not like you can just walk

into a mine, it's like on the ground. Like you could fall into it? Exactly, but I don't know. I think they would have put in the investigation a lot more pressure on that if there was a lot of, you can fall into this mine mines, you know? Yeah, and I totally get that, but I guess the reason why my mind is going to falling through a mine shaft or something like that is because Keith's body was never recovered and there would no remains found

So I'm like where could his body have gone? Totally and that makes a lot of sense the only reason I'm thinking like my mind doesn't go straight to that is just because I you know I've never been I don't know how many mines are in that area or how many mines are on that mountain, but it didn't seem like a big part of the search took place in or around the mines, it was just on the mountain. So I never read anything from the share of saying, oh he's probably in a mine. Yeah, and I mean those people who searched that mountain would know a lot better than us, but I do think that it's an interesting theory, but I also think

the connection to Tom Young is extremely interesting. Well, and the potential nuclear waste dumping being the motive for potential murder of both Tom and Keith, very interesting angle. Yeah, definitely. And my final kind of thought on this is ultimately Tom Young's body was found. And after an insanely intense search and 30 years of people hiking, hunting, and also searching, Keith's remains have not been found. I'm not saying it's not possible that he didn't die out there accidentally, I just feel

like his remains would have been discovered by now. And I also keep going back to the fact that the wild animals in the area wouldn't have eaten all of him, and no one in town saw any vulture circling, and I truly believe there's more to this story than just him accidentally dying. I've read so many stories in cases about people going off hiking and dying accidentally, and it seems their remains are typically found within the first few years if not the first year. Again, not saying it's not possible, just saying I personally feel like something else happened here, and it seems too strange a coincidence that it wasn't connected to Tom. And also going back to the fact that Keith had almost jokingly said that if he didn't

come back, to send the rescue. Like that really makes me believe he wasn't really necessarily worried about something happening to him, but also hints that he didn't want to disappear If you know anything about Keith Reinhardt's disappearance and likely death Please call the Clear Creek County Sheriff's office at 303 679 2376 9, 2, 3, 7, 6. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West.

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. And for anyone who wants to know, the film crew that accompanied Kai Reinhardt on his trip to Silver Plume just a couple years ago, we're filming a documentary about Silver Plume and how it hosts both Tom Young and Keith Reinhardt's cases. And it's called Dark Side of the Mountain, and it's scheduled to come out sometime this year. So stay tuned for that, because they have exclusive interviews with the family and did their own investigation. We'll keep you updated if we see it drop, but it looks like it's gonna be really good. Oh, I'm really excited to check that out.

I know, and thank you so much everybody for checking out this case. Please share it. It's unsolved. We really put emphasis on sharing unsolved cases because his son Kai and his daughter Tiffany are still out there wanting answers. So is his ex-wife Astrid and his other wife Carolyn.

So everybody and other friends and family, of course. So everybody just wants to know what happened. If you know anything, please reach out and if you don't, share. And also, if you have any information about Tom Young's case, please contact that Sheriff's County office. Absolutely. Also, thank you guys so much to everybody who has become a patron in the last week. Patreon keeps our show going.

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